‘Documentos TV’ premieres ‘Escaping Kabul’, about the evacuation of Afghanistan’s women’s cycling team

An evacuation after the Taliban’s return

‘Documentos TV’ premieres ‘Escaping Kabul’ five years after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan. The documentary can be watched on Wednesday 12 August at 00:15 on La 2 and RTVE Play.

The production follows the international plan launched to evacuate 125 people, including members of Afghanistan’s national women’s cycling team. The story focuses on the difficulties and dangers these women faced as they sought a future in which they could maintain their connection with sport.

The documentary shows the different stages of an operation carried out in a context of maximum uncertainty, with Afghanistan’s borders closed and Taliban checkpoints on the roads. It also includes the testimonies of several of the people involved in organising the evacuation.

Persecuted for riding bicycles

On 15 August 2021, after almost 20 years of US occupation in Afghanistan, the Taliban returned to power. Activist Shannon Galpin explains in the documentary that no one expected them to reach Kabul without resistance or for Afghan president Ashraf Ghani to flee.

According to her testimony, the fall of Kabul and the absence of a US plan for Afghanistan plunged the country into absolute chaos. Mohadissa, one of the members of Afghanistan’s national cycling team, summarises the impact that political change had on women: “When the Taliban took Kabul overnight, they ended the dream of all Afghan women.”

The situation particularly affected sportswomen. Galpin recounts that, after the fall of Kabul, women were attacked and says that most of the sportswomen she knew destroyed their medals. Women’s cycling was declared illegal by the Taliban, and the team members became exposed to danger for practising their sport.

Philanthropist Sylvan Adams says that, to the Taliban, a woman on a bicycle is impure. He also warns that these women could be persecuted, detained, tortured or killed. Faced with this risk, he decided to contribute to the plan to get Afghanistan’s national women’s cycling team out of the country.

An international network to save the team

Adams began mobilising his contacts. The first was Yotam Polizer, founder of the organisation IsraAID, which had experience in evacuation work in disaster zones. “We created a humanitarian network to save these young women,” Polizer recounts in ‘Escaping Kabul’.

The founder of IsraAID highlights that the lives of the team members were at risk “simply because they were women who rode bicycles”. The operation required finding allies capable of facilitating their departure from Afghanistan and persuading other countries to accept the young women.

The country’s borders were completely closed and the Taliban had established checkpoints on the roads. In that situation, Polizer explains that he needed allies with political influence, capable of persuading different countries to open their borders and process the necessary visas.

Adams then involved David Lappartient, president of the International Cycling Union. Lappartient put them in touch with Philippe Leuba, former State Councillor of the Swiss canton of Vaud.

Leuba recalls the complexity of the initiative and acknowledges that, with the benefit of hindsight, it was “complete madness”. At the same time, he says it may be one of the actions of which he feels most proud.

Sport as a reason for persecution

Through the testimonies of those involved, the documentary shows how cycling became a threat to the members of Afghanistan’s national team. The sportswomen, who had competed and won medals, had to conceal their sporting history and face the possibility of being identified by the Taliban authorities.

The destruction of the medals described by Shannon Galpin reflects the fear that spread among sportswomen after the Taliban arrived in Kabul. The objects that represented their achievements could also become evidence of their sporting activity.

‘Escaping Kabul’ places the evacuation of these women within the crisis caused by the change of power in August 2021. The documentary follows the coordinated efforts of activists, humanitarian organisations, representatives of the cycling world and political figures to find a way out for the team and for the rest of the people included in the operation.

The broadcast of ‘Escaping Kabul’ will coincide with the fifth anniversary of the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan. The programme examines the consequences of that moment for Afghan women and, in particular, for a group of sportswomen whose passion for cycling made them targets of persecution.

‘Escaping Kabul’ will be broadcast on Wednesday 12 August at 00:15 on La 2 and will also be available on RTVE Play.