Khalida Popal

Khalida Popal (pashto: , born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1987) is an Afghan football player. Popal is the founder and director of Girl Power Organization, the Program and Event Director of the Afghanistan women's national football team, Ambassador to Street Child World Cup, and the Event Manager & Mentor/ Refugee Consultant in COLUM. She is also the former leader of the Afghanistan women's Football Committee, former Finance Officer of the Afghanistan Football Federation, former captain of the Afghan women's national football team, and former football coach of the under-17 and under-15 women's football teams in Afghanistan.

Early life and education Popal was born in 1987 in Kabul, Afghanistan, in a Popalzai Pashtun family. She attended the Business Academy of Denmark, where she received a degree in international marketing management. Popal was taught how to play football by her mother, who was also a physical education teacher. Her mother focused on the power of sport for women and how it can open up new opportunities for young girls.

As a teenage woman playing soccer, Popal was highly vulnerable to discrimination and oppression as the war in Afghanistan continued and the Taliban began to take over areas around Kabul. Kabul, a major city in Afghanistan, was marred by conflict where women had little to no human rights. During this time, the Taliban banned women from playing sports and attending sporting events. In order to avoid being seen playing football by men, Popal and her friends played after school in an isolated yard. Although forbidden, more and more girls joined Popal in playing football after school. Empowered by the growth in the number of young girls playing, Popal eventually moved the playing area into public fields. Even though the Taliban's reign over Afghanistan ended in 2001, Popal still faced the threat and vision of her local community. Many in her community disapproved of young girls playing football and began throwing stones and declaring them "prostitutes" for playing football. Popal eventually landed in Denmark, where she lived in a refugee camp for nearly a year before she was granted residency. Children are able to interact with others, the greater community, and through visual art-work and organized community events, share their stories and experiences with the world.

Work with Hummel In Denmark, Popal also found work with Hummel, a Danish athletic apparel company that designed uniforms for her team that covered the women head to toe in keeping with cultural norms. She continues to work with Hummel and other international NGOs to fight for women's rights in sports around the world. Hummel recently made a new uniform for the Afghan Women's National Football team, one that covers the head in a way that does not require women to wear a hijab during the games. The model Hummel created seeks to provide a lightweight sports form of a hijab so players do not overheat while wearing one. The goal of working with Hummel is to promote a change of mindset surrounding sport and women, that women playing sports does not go against any certain culture or religion. The book covers Popal's family being forced to move to Pakistan in 1996, returning to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, setting up a women's football team in Kabul, exposing sexual abuse experienced by some of the players, and later moving to Denmark and enabling other players to flee when the Taliban came back to power in 2021. The Times Literary Supplement described the book as brave and compelling. The Daily Telegraph listed it as one of the best sports books of 2024.

Awards In March 2017, to mark International Women's Day, Theirworld, a global education charity founded by Sarah Brown, recognized Popal's work as part of their #RewritingTheCode campaign. The purpose and mission of the campaign is to protest and challenge the prejudices and ideologies that deny women and young girls equal opportunities. In 2017, in alliance with Theirworld, Popal was given the 2017 Challenge Award.

Support Support for the Afghan women's football team has grown. It is now legal for both men and women to show support for the team online and on social media. That being said, the team still faces many uphill battles. The team is unable to play matches in Afghanistan, as local officials have stated they can't ensure the safety of the players.

Currently living in Denmark with her family, Popal continues to fight for women's rights and equality in sport. She continues her work with the Afghanistan Women's National Football Team as their Program and Event Director.

After the return of the Talibans in power in Afghanistan in August-September 2021, she helps coordinate the evacuation of young female Afghan football players and their families, who eventually land in the UK on November 18, 2021.