The former Afghan women's soccer team captain Khalida Popal is telling female players to burn their uniforms and delete all evidence that they played sports.
She also advised them to delete their photos to protect themselves from the Taliban.
Popal herself was forced to seek asylum in Denmark in 2016, after she received death threats in her role as director of the country's football association.
The former captain of Afghanistan's women's national soccer team is urging female players to protect themselves by burning their uniforms and wiping their social media of traces that they ever played sports.
"Today I'm calling them and telling them, take down their names, remove their identities, take down their photos for their safety. Even I'm telling them to burn down or get rid of your national team uniform," Khalida Popal told Reuters in a video interview on August 18.
Popal added that she had always advocated for young women to stand strong and be visible.
But now, she wants female sports players to stay safe by erasing their online history and flying under the radar.
"That is painful for me, for someone as an activist who stood up and did everything possible to achieve and earn that identity as a women's national team player," Popal told Reuters.
"To earn that badge on the chest, to have the right to play and represent our country, how much we were proud," she added.
Watch and pray for the vulnerable Afghans male, female and children.
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