Kim Kardashian helps airlift Afghanistan's Women's youth soccer team to Britain

Afghanistan's women's youth development soccer squad arrived in Britain early on November 18, after being airlifted from Pakistan with the assistance of a New York rabbi, a British soccer club, and Kim Kardashian West. A jet hired by the reality star landed at Stansted Airport near London, carrying more than 30 adolescent participants and their families, totalling roughly 130 people. Before beginning their new life in Britain, the Afghans will be quarantined for 10 days owing to the coronavirus. 

Leeds United of the English Premier League has also pledged to help the players. Khalida Popal, a former captain of Afghanistan's national women's team who has coordinated female athlete evacuation efforts, said she was very delighted and so relieved that the girls and women were safe, according to AP.

"Many of those families left their houses when the Taliban took over. Their houses were burnt down, some of their family members were killed or taken by Taliban. So, the danger and the stress was very high, and that’s why it was very important to move fast to get them outside Afghanistan,” Popal told AP.

Afghanistan's national women's soccer team was evacuated by Australia, and the youth girls' squad was relocated to Portugal. Members of the development team, many of whom hail from impoverished households in the country's provinces, made it to Pakistan and, eventually, to the United Kingdom. However, as the time limit on their Pakistani visas approached, they were kept in limbo for weeks with no way out of the country. The crew received assistance from the Tzedek Association, a non-profit organisation based in the United States that earlier assisted the last known member of Kabul's Jewish community in leaving Afghanistan.

Rabbi approached Kardashian to assist pay for a chartered flight to UK

Rabbi Moshe Margaretten, the group's founder, has worked on criminal justice reform in the United States alongside reality TV star Kardashian West. He approached her to assist to pay for a chartered flight to the United Kingdom. Kim Kardashian's spokeswoman acknowledged that the flight was chartered by the actress and her business SKIMs.

As Kabul fell to Taliban terrorists in August, Britain and other countries evacuated hundreds of Afghans in a hurried airlift. Many more people have departed overland for neighbouring countries in the hopes of continuing their journey to the West. Women's participation in athletics was viewed as a political act of disobedience against the Taliban, and hundreds of female athletes have fled Afghanistan since the group retook power and began restricting women's education and freedoms.

(With inputs from AP)

Image: AP