Marzieh Hamidi, Afghanistan's refugee female fighter, details the heartbreaking ordeal of fleeing Taliban rule 

Marzieh Hamidi, a 21-year-old taekwondo fighter from Afghanistan, had to flee her homeland after the Taliban invasion in order to continue participating in competitions and pursue her career in the sport.

Life is full of struggle and hardship for everyone, especially if they take up fighting as a career. But once in a while, stories like the one Marzieh Hamidi has to tell remind us of the greater battles some have to overcome.

Speaking with The Independent, Hamidi narrated the harrowing experience in detail:

"Many men in Taliban’s Afghanistan have been led to believe women cannot be champions. When I open my legs high up for training, they say ‘You lost your virginity, you’re bad.'... This is violence for me. It doesn’t have to be a slap on my face. This is enough violence and destruction for my brain."

Marzieh Hamidi, who is now living in Paris, will be competing in the 2023 World Taekwondo Championship in Baku, Azerbaijan. She will be fighting in the 57kg category as part of the refugee team.

She continued:

“For me, they are a group of terrorists. Because of them, I had to start my life all over again, I had to leave my country. I am alone, I lost my home and I lost so many people back home in the war. I want to now show to the Taliban that refugees are not as weak as they are viewed."

She will possibly be meeting some of her male counterparts, who will be competing in Baku representing Afghanistan.

However, none of her female teammates will be there, as only boys and men are allowed to train and compete under the new Taliban rule. It is one of the several rights women have lost since the regime started.

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The agony of Taliban rule cost Marzieh Hamidi her first fight since fleeing Kabul

Marzieh Hamidi remembers watching the Taliban forces take over the city from her house in Kabul's Karte Char. She put on a burqa three times her size and went to a local cafe with a friend to gauge what was happening in the neighborhood.

Shortly afterward, she and 3,000 more were evacuated by France, making her a refugee again. She was born in exile in Iran in 2002 and had only managed to return home in 2019.

She posted a tear-jerking video on her Instagram taken from the window of the flight she boarded, leaving behind Kabul for good.

Watch the video on the third slide of the carousel:

However, the distress caused by the experience interfered with her first fight since leaving Afghanistan.

"Sometimes I zone out and my mind goes back to Afghanistan. I lost my fight in Belgium because of the Taliban, which was my first fight after fleeing Kabul. I was depressed and when I am reeling under that feeling, I do not have energy in my legs, in my body to fight and raise it high enough for a kick."

However, Marzieh Hamidi did not let it set her back. She is adamant about not falling to the regime at any cost:

"I will fight for Afghanistan but I will do it my way. I will not be the Taliban’s victim.”