Arabnews24.ca:Friday 3 February 2023 08:53 PM: When the women's T20 cricket World Cup begins next Friday in South Africa, Nazifa Amiri would love to have been there.
It is her dream to one day compete on a world stage in the shirt of Afghanistan.
But it's a dream that is likely to remain just that.
The 20 players who were given central contracts by the Afghanistan Cricket board in 2020, with a view to creating the first women's team in the country, were one year later being whisked to safety by other governments.
Being a woman and playing cricket in Afghanistan was frowned upon at the best of times and under Taliban rule it was banned.
Like most of the other girls she trained with, (two are in Canada and one in England) Nazifa was given a visa by Australia and a month after Kabul fell, she was on a plane to Melbourne.
"It's hard to describe that time. You have to leave your country, but you don't want to. But it's not about yourself, it's about your family, someone you love and you have to leave.
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"I could help my parents, my husband, my siblings, but other girls' families are still in Afghanistan.
"We can't say they are safe. Unfortunately they aren't safe. It's a hard situation for all our team."
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Staying in her home town of Herat, there was no chance she'd ever pick up a bat again and would certainly be a target.
"I can't say the Taliban would target only cricketers. They target every woman who played sports.
"They would target someone and if she wasn't there they would target the family, they would say where is she and if they couldn't find someone they would bother others.
"We think Afghanistan women are forgotten by leaders of the world, so we try and stay strong.
"Here in Australia I can play, I can represent my country, but unfortunately the Taliban came and shut everything off for us."
When the Afghanistan men's team were voted in as a full member of the ICC in 2017 they did not meet the criteria around women's cricket, citing cultural and religious reasons.
But they got their membership with a view that they would make progress in that area, which wasn't easy for any of the girls who wanted to play.
"They are really rude about girls playing sport. Most people think that sport isn't nice for a woman.
"People speak really bad about women's sport in Afghanistan. That makes it really hard. When girls play sport in Afghanistan they fight with relatives, with family, with community.
"I am fighting for eight years to show I am strong and can play cricket."
The Afghanistan women's team, who have never represented their country in an international, are training in Australia and have so much they didn't have back home.
"We have a coach, we have equipment, we have a ground, we never had a ground in my city Herat, we have all things except our national team."
Nazifa feels they've always lacked support in their own country.
"We didn't get any support from them (men's team) it's really sad when you see other countries men's and women's teams together, they support each other.
"I want to say to the ICC please give us a chance to represent ourselves.
"Give us the chance to represent our country. All the girls on my team want to put on their uniform, see our flag flying in the ground. We request the chance to play cricket. Just one time. Give us a chance."
While she continues to make a new life for herself, she says there's no hope right now for women in her country.
"Women and girls in Afghanistan have no future. We need leaders of the world to change the rules for girls. All is banned. I don't see any future for Afghan women with the Taliban."
