Afghan women footballers abused sexually

This 3 December 2018 video says about itself:

Afghan women’s soccer team members accuse officials of sexual abuse | DW News

Some former and current women’s players on Afghanistan’s national football team made allegations of sexual abuse by football federation officials. … Former player Khalida Popal, who reported alleged abuse told DW she’s been waiting for months for FIFA to take action. FIFA is investigating claims that high-ranking Afghan sports officials sexually abused, raped and threatened members of the country’s national women’s football team.

After similar reports about the Sri Lankan women’s cricket team.

Translated from Dutch NOS TV today:

The Afghan president has instructed the Public Prosecution Service to investigate allegations of sexual abuse against members of the national women’s football team. The British newspaper The Guardian wrote Friday that players have been abused by, eg, the chairman of the Afghan Football Association AFF. …

The FIFA world football association has also begun an investigation and the Danish sportswear manufacturer Hummel has broken its ties with the Afghan federation. …

Training camp

The Guardian spoke with, eg, the former head of women’s football at the AFF, Khalida Popal. She told about the events at a training camp in 2016 in Jordan.

Popal herself lives just like some players abroad.

Ms Popal was forced to flee the country in 2016 and seek asylum in Denmark.

Players who traveled to the training camp from Afghanistan were accompanied by two men. “They were bullying and harassing the girls, particularly the ones from Afghanistan because they knew they wouldn’t speak up.” said Popal. “I confronted them, told them they can’t do that and I’d make a complaint.”

“It continued. These guys were calling on the rooms of the players and sleeping with the girls. AFF staff members would say to girls that they could get them on the team list and would pay them £100 a month if they would say yes to everything. They were pushing and forcing the girls.”

Popal complained to the AFF chairman. The two male officials then received better paid posts within the federation. Nine players living in Afghanistan were expelled from the team because they were supposedly lesbian.

Popal: “The president labelled them lesbians to silence them from speaking out about the sexual abuse in Jordan and abuses by coaches. He beat one of the girls with a snooker cue.”

Abuse, threats, rape

The whistleblower herself started an investigation that lasted six months. This has yielded several examples of sexual abuse, death threats and rapes.

In this way she discovered that the union president had a room in his office with a bed. Players were abused there and then removed from the team, says Popal. If they were to tell about the abuse, then it would appear that they were doing so out of revenge, because they no longer belonged to the selection.

USA GYMNASTICS FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY USA Gymnastics is turning to bankruptcy in an effort to ensure its survival. The embattled organization filed a Chapter 11 petition as it attempts to reach settlements in dozens of sex-abuse lawsuits. [AP]

Amnesty International has ranked Afghanistan as the worst place in the world to be a woman. Women can be attacked because they go to school or to work. The country also has high levels of rape and domestic violence, as well as physical and sexual abuse by state forces, forced and child marriage and honour killings: here.