{"id":2625,"date":"2018-12-05T15:52:06","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T15:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/?p=2625"},"modified":"2018-12-05T15:52:06","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T15:52:06","slug":"afghan-womens-soccer-team-accuses-officials-of-sexual-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/2018\/12\/05\/afghan-womens-soccer-team-accuses-officials-of-sexual-abuse\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghan Women\u2019s Soccer Team Accuses Officials of Sexual Abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"
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KABUL, Afghanistan \u2014 The Afghan government is investigating allegations that players on the women\u2019s national soccer team were sexually and physically abused by male coaches and officials, including the head of the Afghan soccer federation, officials said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

President Ashraf Ghani said in a closed-door speech to the Afghanistan National Olympic Committee on Monday that he had ordered the investigation into the Afghanistan Football Federation in response to a\u00a0report in The Guardian last week<\/a>\u00a0whose revelations he called \u201cshocking to all Afghans.\u201d<\/p>\n

FIFA, the world body regulating international soccer, is conducting its own investigation.<\/p>\n

The scandal has prompted the team\u2019s principal sponsor, the Danish sportswear company Hummel, to\u00a0withdraw its support<\/a>. \u201cThe documentation presented to us is not only an indication of gross misconduct and abuse of power by the A.F.F. officials, it is in direct contrast to our values,\u201d the company\u2019s chief executive, Allan Vad Nielsen, said in a statement. \u201cWe have no other choice but to cancel the sponsorship.\u201d<\/p>\n

The accusations focus on Keramuddin Keram, the president of the Afghanistan Football Federation, which governs both men\u2019s and women\u2019s soccer, as well as other male officials from the federation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Khalida Popal<\/a>, one of the original players on the women\u2019s team and a longtime manager, said Mr. Keram had sexually harassed players in a bedroom in his office. She said that the bedroom had been rigged so that it could be opened only from the inside with his fingerprint scan, and that he trapped women there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president of A.F.F. and some trainers are raping and sexually harassing female players,\u201d Ms. Popal said in a telephone interview on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Ms. Popal fled Afghanistan in 2012 and obtained asylum in Denmark but has remained active with the national team, organizing training camps abroad.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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When she organized a training camp in Jordan in February of this year, Ms. Popal said, she was shocked that the Afghan federation sent a male trainer and a male official to chaperone the team. One of the men got drunk and tried to force some of the women into having sex with him, including inside the women-only dormitory, and both of the men sexually harassed team members, Ms. Popal said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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When the players threatened to complain, Ms. Popal told The Guardian, Mr. Keram, a politically influential former governor of Panjshir Province, beat one of them with a snooker cue, and threw her and eight other women off the team, alleging they were lesbians.<\/p>\n

Hummel also focused on Mr. Keram. \u201cAllegedly, the president was complicit in allowing the abuse to happen, and did not respond to the allegations put forward by the national team,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n

Ms. Popal said that when she learned in Jordan about the abuse of players, the victims were concerned about keeping everything quiet for fear that their parents would stop them from playing on the team. She said she had called Mr. Keram to tell him about the abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe promised that he would follow the issue and punish the abusive trainers,\u201d she said. Instead, they were promoted to other federation jobs, she added.<\/p>\n

The Afghanistan Football Federation issued a statement calling the allegations \u201cgroundless\u201d and saying it had \u201ca zero-tolerance policy toward any type of such behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

It said no one had ever brought such accusations to its attention.<\/p>\n

Mr. Keram did not respond to repeated requests for comment over four days. His chief of staff, Massoud Hassimi, said Mr. Keram was still the federation president and that only the main doors of the federation\u2019s offices required fingerprint scans to open.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The head coach of the Afghan women\u2019s team, Kelly Lindsey of the United States, expressed support for Ms. Popal and the players who have made the accusations. \u201cOur Women have endured horrific Mental, Physical, and Sexual Abuse to play the sport they love for the country they love!\u201d she\u00a0wrote on Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr. Ghani did not announce any actions against the soccer federation and did not say if he believed the accusations. \u201cEven if mere allegations cause our people to stop sending their sons and daughters to sports, we need to act immediately and comprehensively,\u201d Mr. Ghani said.<\/p>\n

Attorney General\u00a0Mohammad Farid Hamidi<\/a>\u00a0promised to announce the results of his investigation within a week.<\/p>\n

\u201cRule of law and justice protects the rights and honor of athletes and families who send their sons and daughters to pursue a profession in sports,\u201d Mr. Hamidi said. (Mr. Hamidi himself was\u00a0criticized in a recent report<\/a>\u00a0by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, a United States agency, which said he presided over an \u201cunproductive, corrupt and patronage-laden office.\u201d)<\/p>\n

FIFA said it had long been aware of the allegations and was investigating them. \u201cFIFA has a zero-tolerance policy on human rights violations and condemns all forms of gender-based violence,\u201d the organization said in a statement. \u201cThe serious subjects mentioned are being looked into by FIFA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither the FIFA statement nor Afghan officials addressed calls from players and Hummel for the Afghan federation or Mr. Keram to be suspended. \u201cOnce the facts are established, whatever remedial measures are needed will be taken,\u201d a FIFA spokesman said.<\/p>\n

Accusations of sexual abuse against male officials running women\u2019s teams in Afghanistan are not new. In 2016, the head coach of the women\u2019s national cycling team was\u00a0accused by the team\u2019s American founder<\/a>\u00a0and many of its members of repeatedly marrying and divorcing his riders, under duress, as well as other offenses. The coach, Haji Abdul Sediq Seddiqi, was fired but never prosecuted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n