Khalida Popal and Hailai Arghandiwal of the Afghanistan Women's National Team

Planet Fútbol with Grant Wahl

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For years, Khalida Popal has been the face of the Afghanistan women's national team, which has been a success story bringing the sport of soccer to more women in her home country. Popal helped raise her team's profile and even got sponsorships from Soccer Without Borders and Hummel, which produced uniforms with headscarves for the team. But recently Popal did her own investigation and found evidence that Afghan soccer federation officials, including president Keramuddin Karim, had physically and sexually abused women's players (which he denies). FIFA has suspended Karim, and the Afghan government has started an investigation into the federation. Popal, who fled to live in Denmark a few years ago, shares her story, and she is followed by Hailai Arghandiwal, an Afghan-American member of the team who recently graduated from Santa Clara University and just signed with the Italian Serie A club Florentia.

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