Former Afghanistan international footballers, Shabnam and Mariam Ruhin, are fighting for official recognition of Afghanistan’s women’s national team. The sisters want to give their former teammates a voice again.
Mariam and Shabnam Ruhin carefully prepare the football pitch in a district of Hamburg, in northern Germany. They have balls, small cones and colored jerseys with them and training is due to start in a few minutes. The two sisters founded the “Spielmacherinnen” (“playmakers”) project in 2021 and use it to support young girls who need help at school or are interested in playing football.
“When we were children, we were interested in football,” Shabnam recalled in an interview with DW. However, it was difficult to find a team to join, the 33-year-old added. “That’s why we try to give girls the opportunity to play football.” And for the sisters, it’s about more than just recreation.
Through sport, they want to help the children, who mostly come from socially disadvantaged areas in Hamburg, to become more self-confident and independent. They also support young people with small workshops to help them find jobs and internships.
“We want to try to open doors for them with education and sport, giving them more opportunities for their future,” said Mariam.
Shabnam and Mariam were both born in Hamburg after their parents fled to Germany from Afghanistan in the 1990s. The two decided to play football at an early age. “For me, football is a feeling of freedom,” said Shabnam.
Their combination of talent and enthusiasm attracted the attention of the small Hamburg football club Einigkeit Wilhelmsburg and they were soon spotted by scouts from the Afghan national football team in 2011. A short time later, a dream came true for the sisters when they were allowed to take to the turf for their parents’ homeland for the first time.
“It was something very special to be able to represent our country,” said Mariam. And her sister adds: “I am very proud of it. Especially because we played for a country where women’s football was not common. That felt very good.”
Despite their joy at reaching the international stage, dark clouds were never too far away. “Not everyone was happy and accepted that we played football. On social media, many people wrote bad things about us and said that women were not allowed to play football,” Shabnam said.
“Back then, I felt like I wasn’t doing the right thing. But now that I’ve grown up, I know that as women we have the right to play football and pursue our dreams.”
Those women who play sport become symbols of resistance as well as role models in Afghanistan, as they have to swim against the prevailing societal expectations. This became even more acute when the sisters joined former captain turned advocate Khalida Popal in exposing an abuse scandal in Afghan football in 2018.
“Bad things happened in Afghanistan because girls were abused by coaches and members of the football association,” Shabnam told DW. Among others, the then AFF president Keramuddin Keram was accused of raping female players. After much hesitation, the world football association FIFA banned Keram for life. The Ruhin sisters also took action and resigned from the national team.
“We said that as women we cannot tolerate this. So we left the national team,” said Shabnam. “We wanted to send a message that you cannot do this to an Afghan woman.”
Since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, conditions for women in Afghanistan have continued to deteriorate. Female athletes in particular live in fear for their lives and are often persecuted.
“I saw the wild Taliban everywhere,” Afghanistan football international Shamsia Amiri told German public broadcaster ZDF in 2023. “They beat people, shoot around them, spread fear and terror.”
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Most international players have fled abroad, with the help of Popal and the Ruhin sisters. The majority of them now live in exile in Australia and have been playing for the Melbourne Victory FC AWT, also known as the “Afghan Women’s Team,” in the Australian league system since 2022.
Together with Popal, the Ruhin sisters founded the organization Girl Power in 2014 to support young women. Since 2021, they have also used their association to help former teammates. “We try to build bridges and create a network to support each other,” said Mariam.
The women have been demanding that FIFA recognize the Afghan women’s national football team for several years. But the governors of world football have remained silent.
“That is our biggest problem. We are trying to convince the association to recognize the national team,” said Shabnam. “FIFA must help us.”
The national team can only play international matches after getting this recognition. Without it, the players are increasingly pushed into the background. To counteract this, Shabnam and Mariam have repeatedly attempted to move the spotlight back on those players.
“My voice represents the girls in Afghanistan. As long as I remain silent, the women will not be heard either,” said Mariam. “We want to show the Taliban that they have not succeeded in suppressing us, that we still play football and are still a community. The situation in Afghanistan is becoming increasingly difficult. Women are losing more and more rights and are becoming invisible,” she said.
Her sister still believes in a chance of a positive future. “I hope that girls in Afghanistan will one day get their rights. I hope that they have the same rights that we have here in Germany. That they can make decisions for themselves, that they can do sports, go to school and leave the house,” she said, before addressing the women and girls in Afghanistan directly.
“I want to tell all Afghan women and girls to stay strong. We are always with you and will continue to fight for you.”
This article was originally written in German.
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