Afghan female soccer players start UK lives thanks to ‘hat trick’ of Kardashian West, New York rabbi and British football team

A plane chartered by reality TV star, carrying more than 30 teenage footballers and their families, lands at Stansted Airport near London

Brooklyn-based rabbi asked for her help; Leeds United promises to support the youngsters, among the many who have fled from the Taliban

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A female Afghan goalkeeper takes part in a friendly football match against Qatar women‘s national team in Doha. Many female athletes have fled Afghanistan since the Taliban took over this summer. Photo: AFP

Published: 10:45pm, 18 Nov 2021Updated: 7:12am, 19 Nov 2021

Members of Afghanistan’s women’s youth development soccer team arrived in Britain on Thursday after being flown from Pakistan with the help of a New York rabbi, a UK soccer club and American television personality Kim Kardashian West.

A plane chartered by the reality star and carrying more than 30 teenage players and their families, about 130 people in all, landed at Stansted Airport near London. The Afghans will spend 10 days in coronavirus quarantine before starting new lives in Britain.

English Premier League club Leeds United has offered to support the players.

Britain and other countries evacuated thousands of Afghans in a rushed airlift as Kabul fell to Taliban militants in August. Many more people have since left overland for neighbouring countries in hopes of travelling on to the West.

Women playing sports was seen as a political act of defiance against the Taliban, and hundreds of female athletes have left Afghanistan since the group returned to power and began curbing women’s education and freedoms.

Khalida Popal, a former captain of Afghanistan’s national women’s team who has spearheaded evacuation efforts for female athletes, said she felt “so happy and so relieved” that the girls and women were out of danger.

“Many of those families left their houses when the Taliban took over. Their houses were burnt down,” Popal said. “Some of their family members were killed or taken by Taliban. So the danger and the stress was very high, and that’s why it was very important to move fast to get them outside Afghanistan.”