Afghan Olympic runner competes with message to the Taliban on her bib

Afghan sprinter Kimia Yousofi competed in her Olympic 100-meter race with a message about women’s rights on the back of her bib.

After Yousofi finished last in her heat on Friday, she lifted up her bib to reveal a message written on the back of it that appeared to read, “Education,” “Sport,” “Our Rights,” according to photos taken of her at the event.

“I am fighting for a land where the terrorists came. If they get into your house, you say, ‘OK, get out, this is my house.’ What should I feel? They took my land,” she said after the race, according to CNN. “No one in Afghanistan recognizes them as the government. No one. They cannot talk. I can talk.”

Yousofi, who has lived in Australia since 2022, is one of three women representing Afghanistan in the Paris Olympics this summer, according to The Associated Press. She was selected to be the country’s flag bearer for the opening ceremony.

“It’s an honor to represent the girls of my homeland once again,” she said in a statement released by the Australian Olympic Committee last month. “Girls and women who have been deprived of basic rights, including education, which is the most important one.”

“I represent the stolen dreams and aspirations of these women. Those who don’t have the authority to make decisions as free human beings — they don’t even have the permission to enter a park,” she continued.

She was among the athletes and families who resettled in Australia after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, according to The Associated Press.

Since taking power in August 2021 following the U.S.’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Taliban has begun enforcing restrictions on Afghan women. A United Nations report earlier this year found that the Taliban “continue to enforce and promulgate restrictions on women’s rights to work, education and freedom of movement.”

The Associated Press contributed.