In order to make her bow as a Paralympian three years ago, the Afghan taekwondo fighter Zakia Khudadadi had to undergo a trial most of us would struggle to comprehend. A prisoner in her home, a target of the returning Taliban, it was only after a desperate video appeal went viral that she was smuggled out of the country on one of the last flights out of Kabul. Within days, she was competing in Tokyo.
“I think everyone knows my story now and the challenges I was facing,” Khudadadi says, modestly relaying what she went through. “I even knew that maybe after the video that it was possible nobody would come to support me and it was a life danger for me. But I accepted this risk: I wanted to be the first girl at the Paralympic Games.”
Khudadadi achieved her goal. She was able to take part in the inaugural Paralympic taekwondo tournament in Tokyo, becoming in the process the first Afghan woman to appear at the Games since 2004. But it was hardly the end of the story. Khudadadi could not return to her home nor hope to represent her country again.
There will be no women competing for Afghanistan in the Paralympics this year. As the conditions in the country continue to deteriorate, with the United Nations reporting this year that the Taliban are now restricting access to work, travel and healthcare for half of the population, female athletes must practise in secret, if they can practise at all. The Afghanistan Paralympic Committee is to send one athlete, a man, who will coincidentally be competing in taekwondo.
But Khudadadi, now living in France, will be there too, competing under the flag of the Refugee Paralympic Team (RPT) in the -47kg classification. “Unfortunately, before me there were no other girls in the Paralympics and for now we don’t have any either,” she says. “But after Tokyo I worked really hard and now it’s an honour and an opportunity to play with the refugee team for Paris. I want to send people a message.”
Khudadadi’s life is a matrix of challenges. She is a woman with a disability –she has one functioning arm – who has been forced to flee her own home. Added to that, she must now confront the difficulties of being a refugee in the west. “I had the same experience as others when I became a refugee,” she says. “We need to make people understand that refugees have a right to asylum, that they had to flee their countries because of the situation they were in. We need to make people understand the reality of what refugees are going through.”
As with the Olympics, Paris will be the third Paralympic Games to feature a refugee team. Representing as many as 120 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, this team will be the biggest, featuring eight athletes and two guide runners competing in six sports: para athletics, para powerlifting, para table tennis, para taekwondo, para triathlon and wheelchair fencing.
Joining Khudadadi will be the veteran RPT competitor Ibrahim Al Hussein. A refugee from Syria, Hussein arrived in Greece as one of tens of thousands of people fleeing the civil war a decade ago. Competing first as a swimmer, he was the RPT flagbearer in Rio. Now, repurposing himself as a triathlete after making the not uncommon realisation that “I am getting old and cannot compete with the new generation in swimming”, he has a unique perspective on the growth of the team and the challenges faced by refugees.
“Bearing the flag was a great moment for me and it opened doors,” he says. “It was the first step for the refugee teams, it was a letter of hope for many Paralympians to believe in themselves. The achievement [we can bring about] is not about medals but about changing things and changing lives. I don’t call it a team, I call it a family, and being part of it has changed my life in a great way.”
Hussein’s perspective is different from that of Khudadadi. He cuts a relaxed figure, someone comfortable and experienced in his position; a reminder of how the word “refugee” encompasses so many different people and experiences. After living in Greece for 10 years he says he is supportive of a country that found itself on the frontline of a refugee crisis. “I believe every country has the right to defend her borders,” he says. “With all my respect to all refugees not all deserve to be refugees. I understand the government of Greece.”
The Paralympic Games celebrates human achievement and it also celebrates diversity. The RPT is an example of this and one that is growing in significance every four years. It is also a team that wants to get medals on the board .
Khudadadi won gold at the European championships last year and a place on the podium in Paris is not impossible. “I am really happy and ready to represent the refugee team because I am a refugee in France,” she says. “I hope we can all get a medal to show how proud we are.”
