Much of the world's attention moved on after the 2021 fall of Kabul. But for Afghan women, the crisis has deepened under the Taliban regime Five years on, advocates are calling for recognition of gender apartheid under international law.
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TRANSCRIPT
"It's a big matter, gender apartheid, and it's happening still till 2026."
Five years after the Taliban returned to power, Afghan women remain largely erased from public life.
Girls are barred from secondary and higher education.
Women have been pushed out of most employment, restrictions on movement, dress and public participation have tightened.
Sport, too, has been almost completely erased for women inside Afghanistan.
But in exile, Afghan women footballers have rebuilt something they thought they had lost forever - a national team.
For these players, football once represented part of their identity, especially when the country's national women's team was formed in 2007.
Now, it has become a symbol of what was taken away, and what they are determined to reclaim for young women in the country.
Mursal Sadat is a human rights advocate, and a defender for Afghan Women's United.
"Coming to Australia, with no family, becoming a carer for two of my under 18 teammates for a while, and, starting to become fluent in English. I came to the country with basic understanding of English, learning the culture and everything that is here. It was a rough journey, and becoming a breadwinner at an early age, basically supporting my family emotionally and financially."
But Australia also gave her an opportunity to keep playing.
"Whenever I hear about the situation of women back home or they reach out to me, I'm in, continuous contact with everyone, and they text me about the situation, about how much they miss playing football, or some of them miss playing, any other sport or going to school, or sometimes they are in a really hard financial situation that it breaks my heart."
For the players who escaped, the fall of Kabul in 2021 remains a defining moment.
"The country collapsed, and we were not able to do anything basically, and we were waiting for our death. And then the light of hope was there, and we managed to survive, and not only survival, but represent our country once again after years of advocacy for the team to get recognised. So it's a beacon of hope for all Afghan women around the world and for me and my teammates to be part of this journey to make history. It's a big step."
And, Mursal Sadat says they are planting seeds for the future generation to continue the legacy.
"I think this would be the proudest achievement for our team to be able to at least do something for the younger generation and for women of Afghanistan, to have a mirror of an international level to reflect what's going on there and to be their voice in a voiceless journey."
That determination began almost immediately after the players arrived in Australia.
"I still remember the first Zoom meeting we had with Khalida (Popal) online. We just arrived in Australia, and we all had a meeting with her, and she said that, "Look, now the team is not recognised, and you guys are former players." But none of us were ready to accept it, because why? Why would we accept a country not having a national team, even though we have the players outside the country? We, we have the generation and the talents. So, we continued with our advocacy. We stayed together as a team."
Recognition did not come easily.
"It was a hard journey to be honest. Along the way, I became disappointed so many times, especially around the Women World Cup 2023, when FIFA didn't even meet us or had anything to do with us. But we still continued because I believed that if you're on the right side of the history, you will eventually win. Maybe not today and tomorrow, but eventually the day will come."
In 2025, that campaign took another step forward.
The 23-player squad - resettled in countries including Australia, Italy, Portugal, UK and across Europe - came together as Afghan Women's United - rejecting the idea that they should simply be defined as refugees.
A symbol of resilience for Afghanistan and Afghan women.
"So we came up with the Afghan Women's United and the logo, which is the hands holding together and a tulip inside of it, because tulip is a symbol for, for Afghanistan and a famous flower, and it's a representation of women, as delicate and as beautiful. So that's how we made our very first representation 2025 in Morocco and play as Afghan Women's United team. And it was amazing, and it was a big milestone, but still the beginning of the way. We didn't know what will happen after this."
In April this year, FIFA announced sweeping governance reforms that allow members of the Afghan women's team to represent their country on the international field.
Earlier, the Taliban's return to power in 2021 forced restrictions on women's rights, including a ban on women's sports.
And this meant they could not gain the approval of the Afghanistan Football Federation.
For Mursal Sadat, the team's sheer determination in making that happen is enormous.
"Hopefully next year onwards, we will be able to have an Afghan women's team from exile without any connection to the government inside Afghanistan, which obviously makes sense."
There have already been glimpses of what that future could look like.
Earlier this month, Afghan Women's United travelled to New Zealand for a friendly match against the Cook Islands.
Mursal says that was part of a historical journey, but that journey has come at a profound personal cost.
Mursal's family was targeted by the Taliban and had to flee Afghanistan after she escaped.
They now live as refugees in neighbouring countries.
She says speaking publicly comes with a constant fear for their safety.
"It impacts me a lot mentally, I've been dealing with severe depression and anxiety for the past five years. Not to mention the amount of responsibility that lies on your shoulders as you become an advocate. I still hope that one day I can reunite with them and I can provide them with safety there, because they are at risk because of my passion and because of my voice. And as days pass and I speak more and more, it puts them at more risk. But at least, uh, you know, I can do something for millions of people, because as a famous quote says, "If not us, then who? If not now, then when?"
For goalkeeper and captain of Afghanistan’s women’s national football team, Fatima Yousufi, football was once something she had to hide from her own family.
"When I started, I hid it from my dad, and that was the time that, lead me to go for the training and trials for the team and then afterwards to the nationals team. And it was quite a hard journey 'cause, you're taking all those risks and, just to make it happen towards the national team and, all those years of accomplishment like hard work from all my teammates and us they're all vanished at the time that the Taliban arrived in 2021."
Fatima was in Kabul airport as the country fell.
"The journey that we've been through, it was horrifying as well, going through the time in airport of Kabul and seeing everything by our own eyes. Like the Taliban was there, shooting towards the people and celebrating their achievement that they took over Afghanistan."
She says it was tough to see her country - with a population of about 40-million people living in Afghanistan - at a time of tragedy.
But escaping also meant survival.
"For us and for our team it was very hopeful to be out, to be alive again, to start over by coming to Australia. And yeah right now you're thinking about, it's almost going to be five years, since that time, and it's just sad to see nothing really changed."
For Fatima Yousufi, her memories of that day in Kabul remain vivid.
She escaped with some of her siblings.
"I've came here with, my teammates and some of my siblings, three of them. And then one of my siblings and my parents remained in Afghanistan that time, and we got separated in airport. Airport of Kabul, it was in the airport that we were always traveling around for the, international games before. And it was a chaos, like the Taliban, when they were there we saw a lot of things. The images are still in my head, and it's terrible to just remember."
Before the Taliban returned, Fatima had been building a life she had once thought possible.
"I was the first girl from our family, from our relatives that, I continued with my education towards, the thing that I wanted, to become a businesswoman also beside being an athlete. And I was almost studying, I was almost starting to go with, my university. And, that's the thing, that the Taliban arrived and everything, just to stop there. It was quite hard. But again, my dad came along with me, to have, his support in that time."
Both Fatima Yousufi and Mursal Sadat credit former Afghanistan women's national team captain Khalida Popal with helping keep the players together after the fall of Kabul.
Fatima says she does not want another generation of Afghan girls to lose the opportunities she once had.
"It's a big matter, gender apartheid, and it's happening still till 2026. I don't want this to continue. I don't want a girl to experience the same thing I experienced and the same thing that they're experiencing right now, the women and girls from Afghanistan. And I want them to have the same right that I have, sport, education, public life, freedom of speech, everything that they..it's basically their human rights."
She is urging Australia and other governments not to look away, saying it was not by the choice of the people to put the Taliban into power.
"They also just trying to make their regulation, force on people, and that's very depressing to see that's happening. And they cannot even have their freedom to go out there and for example, to protest. If they do, they will be killed. They will be under attack because that's not a regulation of the Taliban."
SBS has contacted the Taliban's director for sports, Ahmadullah Wasiq for a statement, and is yet to receive a response.
The footballers' experiences reflect a much broader dismantling of women's rights in Afghanistan.
Taliban authorities have banned girls from secondary and university education, excluded women from most forms of employment, restricted their freedom of movement, and increasingly erased them from public life.
As Afghanistan emerged from a civil war, from 1996 to 2001, the Taliban controlled most of the country, imposing their interpretation of Sharia or Islamic religious law.
In 2001, it was removed from power by a US-led invasion, but retook control when US forces left 20 years later - in 2021.
Ever since, it has sought international recognition.
In July last year, Russia announced itself as the first country to formally recognise the Taliban government in Afghanistan.
Now, Amnesty International is calling for the international recognition of gender apartheid under international law.
Amnesty International Australia’s Strategic Campaigner and Afghan advocate Zaki Haidari says the situation has deteriorated steadily over the past five years.
"The Taliban has successfully introduced different laws and legislation. Just to oppress women and girls in Afghanistan. So if you're a woman in Afghanistan or young girl, your only hope and dream is to get to Year 6 education. Beyond that you're completely erased from the education from certain main public employment sector, and basically being in public."
He says the rise of other global conflicts meant issues in Afghanistan were underreported.
"That has sort of driven international community and international media to walk away from Afghanistan and to let the human rights violation continue and to happen under the Taliban regime. The UN has called on Taliban leadership to be accountable for the crimes that they are committing against women and girls in Afghanistan."
He urges the Australian government and international community to exert immediate diplomatic pressure.
"Afghanistan lives and rely on international aid. Western countries including Australia is donating a large portion of its aid to Afghanistan, which is crucial and is needed. Half of the population in Afghanistan rely on international aid. So what we're asking the international community aid should be conditional on Taliban. Conditional means that they have to respect the rule of law, they have respect women and the rights of girls in Afghanistan."
According to a recent Human Rights Watch report, more than 17 million people - 40 percent of the population - in Afghanistan are projected to face acute food insecurity, while the United Nations Humanitarian Response Plan remains severely underfunded.
The message from rights advocates is increasingly urgent.
Mursal Sadat says the team is carrying something much bigger than its own ambitions.
Their national team may no longer be able to play at home.
But from Australia and elsewhere in exile, these women are determined to make sure Afghanistan's women are not erased from the world.
"I believe that as worldwide organisation, we have a responsibility upon our shoulders to recognise the gender apartheid that's going on in Afghanistan, and hopefully this team can be a force for change."
