Wednesday, 30 August 2023

Melbourne Victory Football Club Afghan women’s team

Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:06): (442) Tonight I wish to raise a matter for the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events in the other place, and the action that I seek is that the minister update the house on what the government is doing so that FIFA will officially recognise Afghanistan’s national women’s football team, which is based in Melbourne. On Friday night I was fortunate to spend time with participants of the Afghan locally engaged employee program, a terrific group in the south-east, as well as members of Melbourne Victory’s Afghan women’s team, including their captain Mursal Sadat.

Two years ago the team of Afghanistan’s finest female players met at the Kabul airport, surrounded by Taliban men with guns, and fled their nation for safety abroad. Up until just days prior they had been on the pitch displaying the skills they had developed from a lifetime of love for the game and the self-discipline that had got them to a world-class standard. Their participation in the game was up until that time encouraged by the former Afghan administration. Players fled to many nations, and fortunately for us many of them came to Australia and to Melbourne. After a time of resettlement and recovery, the players were embraced by Melbourne Victory – a fantastic A-league club – and are now known as the Melbourne Victory Afghan women’s team. Because the Taliban do not recognise the women’s team as their national team, FIFA refuses to accept them as the national team, and therefore they were unable to participate in qualifiers for the World Cup. As she watched from the sidelines, captain Mursal Sadat said:

Every single moment I watched, I wished that my teammates were able to play and represent Afghanistan …

It’s just so hard to watch from the sidelines and not even be part of the qualifier games. You can see all your dreams and everything that you worked so hard for just fleeing from you. It feels like someone has cut it off our wings and we can’t fly anymore.

Regretfully, by not recognising the team for who they are, FIFA is perpetuating gender inequality and breaching their own code of ethics. I encourage all members and others to lobby FIFA, as so many nations are now doing, and sign the petition #StandWithAfghanWomen, which has received well over 170,000 signatures to date and which I have proudly signed.