Afghanistan’s Zakia Khudadadi prepares to compete in the women’s taekwondo K44 bout during the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games

Two Afghan Paralympians makes debut after top-secret evacuation

Afghan taekwondo athlete Zakia Khudadadi competed in the Paralympic Games on Thursday, becoming the first female Afghan to do so since Athens 2004, after a secret international effort to help her get out of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

Evacuation to Japan involved many helping hands

On September 2, Khudadadi entered the Makuhari Messe competition arena in Chiba, near Tokyo, wearing a white hijab for the opening match of the debut of the Korean combat sport at the Paralympic Games. She became only the second woman to compete for Afghanistan at the Paralympics, which began in 1960.

The 22-year-old and her compatriot Hossain Rasouli arrived in Tokyo on August 27 via Paris after Khudadadi made a video appeal for help to leave Kabul after the Taliban swept to power.

Afghanistan, and in particular the airport in the capital, Kabul, had dissolved into chaos after the Taliban takeover two weeks ago, with thousands of desperate Afghans trying to evacuate. At a news conference shortly after Andrew Parsons, president of the International Paralympic Committee landed in Tokyo, organizers announced that the two athletes — Zakia Khudadadi, 22, who had qualified in taekwondo, a sport making its Paralympics debut, and Hossain Rasouli, 26, a sprinter — would not attend.

Many details of their journey have not been disclosed, and officials have said that the athletes will not be speaking to the news media during the Paralympic Games. Several attempts to evacuate the athletes failed, and Paralympic organizers have said that their eventual arrival in Japan involved multiple steps and the assistance of many organizations and governments.

In a statement issued shortly after the Afghan athletes arrived in Tokyo, Mr. Parsons thanked “several governments”; the Center for Sport and Human Rights, in Geneva; Human Rights for All, in Australia; the French Paralympic Committee; the British Paralympic Association; and World Taekwondo.

According to a French sporting official who requested anonymity to discuss events he was not authorized to speak about publicly, the athletes contacted French diplomats in Kabul for help to get to Tokyo.

A group of human rights activists, lawyers, and former athletes from Australia and Britain stepped in to provide assistance to the athletes, filling out paperwork and advising them on how to get from their homes to the Kabul airport and, once there, how to navigate the crush of people who crowded around its entrances.

Alison Battisson, founder of Human Rights for All, which provides legal assistance for refugees, said she had worked with Nikki Dryden, a former Canadian Olympian turned human rights lawyer; Kat Craig, a British lawyer; and Craig Foster, a former Australian soccer player who now advocates for refugees, to lobby the Australian government to accept the athletes and coordinate with Australian troops stationed in Kabul.

They gave the athletes advice like “hide your papers and your money in a bright scarf in your genitals, basically, and then when you pass through Taliban checkpoints, bring out your scarf and wave it like crazy,” Ms. Battisson said.

Once the athletes had passed the Taliban checkpoints, Ms. Battisson said, “They got themselves noticed by Western forces.” She added: “There is none of this ‘the government saved them’ or anything else. It is: They got themselves out to safety, and we’re the support team.”

Ms. Battisson said she had lost contact with the athletes once they managed to get inside the airport. “I was very happy to hear they made it to Tokyo because I had no idea where on the planet they were,” she said.

In Paris, where officials worked to keep the presence of the Afghan Paralympic athletes secret, they received basic clothing and health checkups. Interpreters helped the athletes make sure their papers were in order for travel to Japan. Most importantly, the French official said, the athletes needed to be committed to compete in the Games and prepare for the likely deluge of media attention once they arrived.

The French official said that several unspecified countries have offered assurances that the Afghan athletes will be welcome to resettle after the Games are over.

When the athletes arrived in Tokyo aboard an Air France flight on Saturday night, they were taken to the Paralympic Village, where Mr. Parsons, Chelsey Gotell, the chair of the I.P.C. Athletes’ Council, and a handful of other officials met them.

“Of course, it was very emotional to see that in some way we had contributed to them to fulfill their dream,” Mr. Parsons said. “They were of course very tired and a little bit lost. Everything had been so fast for them.”

In her Aug. 17 video appeal, Khudadadi had said: “I don’t want my struggle to be in vain and without any results.”

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