Switzerland: For Afghan refugee cyclist Masomah Ali Zada, it will be a bittersweet moment. For the first time in five years, she will take part in the Afghanistan Women’s Cycling Championships yesterday, but not in Kabul.

Instead, the 26-year-old will race in southwest Switzerland, reunited with dozens of Afghan cyclists who now live in different countries. Since the hardline Taliban returned to power last year and restricted women’s freedoms, Ali Zada says “sport is dead” for Afghan women.

The Taliban have banned women from playing sport, barred women from many government jobs and forbidden secondary school education for girls. But Ali Zada, who has lived in France for the past five years, has not given up and continues to represent her country.

Published in The Daily National Courier, October, 24 2022

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