The early evening sun still shone strongly overhead when Sodaba Khinjani adjusted her cleats and squinted out at the soccer field at Bayland Park in southwest Houston.
The temperature was hotter than the playing conditions she was used to in Afghanistan; but then again, pretty much everything about this felt different.
On Sunday, Khinjani and other Afghan women’s soccer players held their first team practice on American soil since they fled Afghanistan under persecution by the Taliban and arrived in Houston as refugees.
They dribbled around the field and relished a return to the sport they loved, one that years earlier made them targets for violence.
After the Taliban regime took over Afghanistan in 2021 and banned women and girls from participating in sports, FIFA helped evacuate more than 150 people connected to women’s sports from Afghanistan. Khinjani was one of 10 female athletes — eight Afghanistan Football Federation developmental system players and two members of the national basketball team — who eventually relocated to Houston in June 2023 after stops in Qatar and Albania.
Sunday’s practice was a reclamation of their identities, but also demonstrated how easily refugees can fall through the cracks.
During the 18 months the Afghan players were in Albania, FIFA paid for their housing and gave them a $50 monthly stipend. When the women arrived in Houston, however, they were abandoned by the sport’s international governing body and handed off to local agencies that were too overwhelmed to help.
The Afghan refugees were on their own when it came to obtaining employment and learning English. Years later, most have green cards and blue-collar jobs but feel far from stable. They haven’t seen their families since leaving Afghanistan. They still worry about their loved ones’ safety, about making enough money to support themselves and those back home, and about their own futures in the U.S. under an administration that is restricting immigration.
And they need help finding their way back to soccer, to the game that gave them hope.
Khinjani said she has communicated with FIFA representatives via email and asked for help to secure a training field and funds. She said that although FIFA’s responses seem sympathetic to the refugees’ plight, no actual assistance has been offered. FIFA did not respond to a list of questions emailed by the Chronicle this week.
“We need action,” Khinjani said. “I’m not saying that FIFA is bad. I can’t forget it that when we were in Afghanistan and Taliban took over Afghanistan and they were searching for everybody, especially for women in the sports teams, we were thinking that now Taliban will enter our house, they will kill all of us. In that time, FIFA act as an angel and they rescue us. I never forget it. I’m glad. But the rest of this story? If somebody wants to help you, they should stay through (to) the end. They should not leave you in the middle.”
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Because of their age differences, the soccer players didn’t know each other back in Afghanistan. In the years since they evacuated together, they’ve grown close and consider each other family in Houston.
Ahmad Sultani, who works for local nonprofit organization Connect Community, was recruiting coaches for a youth soccer team earlier this year when he was connected to several of the Afghan players, who introduced him to the others.
Connect Community serves a large immigrant community in the Gulfton and Sharpstown neighborhoods, an area that Sultani (no relation to Zed) estimates is home to several thousand Afghan families. When he heard the stories of Khinanji, Yaqobi and the others, he knew he had to help.
Pretty soon, they’d started a WhatsApp text group. Earlier this month, they attended a Houston Dash game together, which got them thinking about how to get back on the field themselves.
“They had big hopes for their soccer careers back in Afghanistan, but when the Taliban took over Afghanistan, they were disappointed,” Sultani said. “But when FIFA got involved, they got another hope again, that somebody is now there and they will go back to their profession. But unfortunately, they have been brought to us unattended and they have to start struggling with life with no family, some at very young ages and away from their families. … Now, when they see that we are trying to bring them back on their feet and back to the game, they’re very excited, very happy.”
With the help of Connect Community and Harris County Precinct 4 Commissioner Lesley Briones, whose precinct includes the Gulfton area, plans were made to organize an official practice.
These women would step onto the field again.
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The women plan to meet for practices every Sunday, and eventually would like to play in an 8-v-8 recreational league run by the Houston Women’s Soccer Association. They hope that will lead to more elevated competition.
Last week, FIFA announced its intention to create an Afghan women’s refugee team that will play friendly matches outside of competition – falling short of exiled players’ wishes to have an officially recognized national team to play in international qualifying competitions. FIFA has also not suspended the AFF even though the federation’s exclusion of women violates FIFA’s own gender discrimination policies.
FIFA did not specify a timeline for the refugee team’s creation and said only that it is “engaging directly with the relevant players.” Although most of the former Afghan senior national members are in Australia, some are older now and the team would likely need to fill out the roster with youth and developmental players who are dispersed around the globe.
Khinjani and Sultani said they have not heard from FIFA about the refugee team, or about anything else. They said they would consider joining but are scared to travel to a training camp held outside the U.S. in case they are barred from returning. The Trump administration is considering restricting citizens from certain countries, including Afghanistan, from entering the U.S. and it is unclear whether such travel bans would apply to people with existing visas or green cards.
In the meantime, they are hoping that FIFA or local community partners step up to sponsor them so they can keep playing. In Australia, professional club Melbourne Victory FC sponsored Afghan senior national team members to play in a state league.
I’m rooting for these women, who have been through a lot and deserve some wins. I’m glad they’ve found support, from each other and from various locals – kudos to Commissioner Briones for all she’s done for them – and hope that continues. All the best, y’all.