Posted on 11/30/21
| News Source: FOX News
It was a big "win" for the Afghan women’s youth development soccer team. The girls, many in their teens, plus coaches and family, 130 in all, arrived recently at a London-area airport. The girls are happy and grateful after their lives had been threatened by Afghanistan's new, harsh Taliban rulers, who oppose many freedoms and rights for women -- especially in sports.
Former Afghan women’s soccer captain Khalida Popal was a key "player" in getting the girls and others out.
"Some of their family members were killed or taken by the Taliban," Popal said. "So the danger and distress was very high, and that’s why it was very important to move very fast to get them outside Afghanistan."
But with the departure of U.S. troops, getting them out was not easy.
They were brought from the western city of Herat, they hid out in dangerous Kabul and were smuggled across the border to Pakistan, literally beaten all the way. All of this needed a lot of coordination courtesy of ROKiT Foundation head Siu-Anne Marie Gill. And a lot of funding.
"We had a position where we could do something about it," ROKiT Group CEO Jonathan Kendrick told Fox News. "We rolled the dice, didn’t really think about the full consequences of it, just got it done, and that’s what we did."