Refugee, activist, and captain of the Afghanistan national football team, Khalida Popal tells the story of the extraordinary effort to save her teammates from the Taliban.

‘Riveting, heart-wrenching and incredibly important… an inspirational story for girls and women everywhere’ (Malala).

August, 2021: Kabul falls to the Taliban. Overnight, life for women across Afghanistan changes. The national women’s football team faces an imminent threat to their lives, just for playing sport.

For Khalida Popal, the team’s first captain and co-founder, this is not an unprecedented event. Born in Afghanistan, she fled Taliban rule as a child with her family and grew up in a refugee camp in Pakistan. On her return to Afghanistan, football gave her and her teammates power, comradeship and freedom. But advocating for women’s rights in sport put Popal’s life increasingly at risk, forcing her to flee the country, this time alone.

As a refugee in Denmark, Popal worked to uncover widespread sexual abuse of players by the former president of the Afghanistan Football Federation – forcing FIFA and the government of Afghanistan to act. When Kabul fell Khalida was safe, but her teammates are left behind. Against all the odds, she and a small but mighty network of allies orchestrated an international evacuation strategy to save them.

She joins us live in London to tell this incredible story.

Tickets to this event are half price for members to How To +.