Kim Kardashian helped bring Afghanistan’s women’s youth development football team to safety in the UK after she paid to charter a plane to bring them to safety.
Taliban forces took control of Kabulon 15 August this year, with thousands of people trying to flee the regime before Afghanistan fell - and women losing any agency and freedom they previously held, with women playing sports seen as an especially contentious act of defiance. The youth development team were able to flee to Pakistan and secured British visas, but according to ESPN, were 'left in limbo for weeks with no flight out of the country as the time limit on their Pakistani visas ticked down' - and this is where Kim and SKIMS came in.
Rabbi Moshe Margaretten, head of a US non-profit the Tzedek Association and who Kim worked with previously on her campaigns for criminal justice reform in the US, asked her if she would fund a chartered plane to the UK for the women- and she immediately said yes. 'Maybe an hour later, after the Zoom call, I got a text message that Kim wants to fund the entire flight,' he explained.
'Maybe an hour later, after the Zoom call, I got a text message that Kim wants to fund the entire flight'
More proof that when it comes to altruism, Kim not only talks the talk, but she walks the walk - and hasn’t made a big deal of this extreme act of kindness. Over 130 Afghans were helped to safety in total, with the families of the 30 female footballers in their teens, landing in Stansted earlier today.
Khalida Popal, a former captain of Afghanistan's national women's team told the Associated Press, '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, who has helped evacuate female athletes from the country, said she was 'so happy and so relieved' that the women were out of danger.
The Leeds United football team also helped the effort, with chairman Andrea Radrizzani tweeting earlier: 'First chapter written today! When I received a call asking help to rescue the youth [women's] team from Afghanistan, I didn't know even from where to start. Today they flew to UK. Proud to be part of the team to make this real.'
Australia evacuated the members of Afghanistan's national women's football team, and the youth girls' team was resettled in Portugal.
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