Refugee athlete Manizha Talash was disqualified from the B-Girl breaking competition at the Olympics for wearing a cape with the words \u201cFree Afghan Women\u201d during her breaking battle on Friday. <\/p>\n
The 21-year-old, who fled Afghanistan after the Taliban began seizing control in 2021, now lives in Spain and represents the Refugee Team at the games as B-girl Talash. <\/p>\n
As she made her debut during the pre-qualifier battle, Talash revealed a baby blue cape under her jumper emblazoned with the words calling for Afghan women\u2019s emancipation. <\/p>\n
World DanceSport Federation, which governs the sport, issued a statement later on Friday saying \u201cB-Girl TALASH (EOR) was disqualified for displaying a political slogan on her attire during the Pre-Qualifier battle. Results have been updated accordingly.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t leave Afghanistan because I\u2019m afraid of the Taliban or because I can\u2019t live in Afghanistan,\u201d Talash said before action got underway. \u201cI left because I want to do what I can for the girls in Afghanistan, for my life, my future, for everyone.\u201d <\/p>\n
Under Taliban rule, Afghanistan became the most repressive country in the world for women\u2019s rights, according to the United Nations. The hardline Islamist group has closed secondary schools for girls, banned women from attending university, restricted their travel without a male chaperone, and banned them from public spaces such as parks and gyms. <\/p>\n
The Taliban\u2019s so-called morality police have also disproportionately targeted women and girls, creating a \u201cclimate of fear and intimidation,\u201d according to a UN report published last month. <\/p>\n
Talash found the sport of breaking through watching videos on social media. Her ability to train, however, was disrupted as she looked for somewhere to settle. <\/p>\n
The breaker became one of 37 athletes representing the Refugee Olympic Team in Paris, and is proud to do so. <\/p>\n
\u201cAll refugees have a very difficult life, but they will go to the Games,\u201d she said. \u201cSo to me, to be part of the team, it means strength.\u201d She added: \u201cPeople from my country and also girls would tell me: \u2018You need to learn how to cook and clean the house.\u2019 <\/p>\n
Breaking has been flourishing on the streets of New York and other US cities since the 1970s, but Paris marks its first time its athletes, known as B-boys and B-girls, freestyled their moves on the world\u2019s biggest stage. <\/p>\n
Talash\u2019s slogan may have fallen foul of rules against political slogans at the Olympics but it has also found her fans. <\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to say that it\u2019s only been 11 minutes of breaking and a competitor already pulled out a surprise jacket that says \u201cFree Afghan Women\u201d\u2014THAT is breaking. THAT is hiphop culture,\u201d Nadira Goffe, an associate writer at Slate magazine, wrote on X. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Refugee athlete Manizha Talash was disqualified from the B-Girl breaking competition at the Olympics for wearing a cape with the words \u201cFree Afghan Women\u201d during her breaking battle on Friday. The 21-year-old, who fled Afghanistan after the Taliban began seizing control in 2021, now lives in Spain and represents the Refugee Team at the games <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}