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Kim Kardashian helps fly Afghan women soccer players from Pakistan to UK

Kim Kardashian helps fly Afghan women soccer players from Pakistan to UK

English Premier League club Leeds United has offered to support the players.
18 Nov, 2021

Members of Afghanistan’s women’s youth development soccer team arrived in Britain early Thursday after being flown from Pakistan with the help of a New York rabbi, a UK soccer club and Kim Kardashian West.

A plane chartered by the reality star and carrying more than 30 teenage players and their families, about 130 people in all, landed at Stansted Airport near London. The Afghans will spend 10 days in coronavirus quarantine before starting new lives in Britain.

English Premier League club Leeds United has offered to support the players.

Britain and other countries evacuated thousands of Afghans in a rushed airlift as Kabul fell to the Taliban in August. Many more people have since left overland for neighbouring countries in hopes of traveling on to the West.

Women playing sports was seen as a political act of defiance against the Taliban, and hundreds of female athletes have left Afghanistan since the group returned to power.

Khalida Popal, a former captain of Afghanistan’s national women’s team who has spearheaded evacuation efforts for female athletes, said she felt “so happy and so relieved” that the girls and women were out of danger.

Australia evacuated the members of Afghanistan’s national women’s soccer team, and the youth girls’ team was resettled in Portugal.

Members of the development team, many of whom come from poor families in the country’s provinces, managed to reach Pakistan and eventually to secure UK visas. But they were left in limbo for weeks with no flight out of the country as the time limit on their Pakistani visas ticked down.

The team got help from the Tzedek Association, a nonprofit US group that previously helped the last known member of Kabul’s Jewish community leave Afghanistan.

The group’s founder, Rabbi Moshe Margaretten, has worked with reality TV star Kardashian West on criminal justice reform in the US. He reached out to her to help pay for a chartered plane to the UK.

“Maybe an hour later, after the Zoom call, I got a text message that Kim wants to fund the entire flight,” Margaretten said.

Kardashian West’s spokeswoman confirmed that the star and her brand SKIMs had chartered the flight.

Comments

Tadka Nov 18, 2021 06:18pm
Good job and never advertised her contribution. Well done
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Abubakar Nov 18, 2021 06:44pm
that is a good a help am very happy.
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Abubakar Nov 18, 2021 06:44pm
that is a good a help am very happy.
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Ch. S Nov 18, 2021 06:51pm
She should also pay for out-going flights of other teams. There is no place for educated women in Afghanistan.
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Hamed Nov 18, 2021 07:57pm
How about flying millions of starving afghanis?!
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well-wisher Nov 18, 2021 08:23pm
That is how donations are made - no names for recognition.
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Multani Nov 18, 2021 08:31pm
Why should we accept this help from Americans who are out to destroy our economy, we could have sent them at our expense, we are no freeloaders.
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Harish Nov 18, 2021 08:51pm
She don't know , How peace loving Taliban's, ask IK about Taliban, why to fear.
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ENGR Hamid Shafiq Nov 18, 2021 11:14pm
Are they play in English team?
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Waheed Rehman, US Patriot Nov 19, 2021 12:58am
Way to go Kim, hope those young women fulfil their dreams.
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Harambe Nov 19, 2021 02:52am
@Ch. S : NEVER Enough, HUH?
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Madaiyan Nov 19, 2021 03:00am
Why No Rich Arabs tried to help them?
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AfghaniExpat Nov 19, 2021 05:30am
If you want EU citizenship doled to you, just claim that you are afraid of Taliban. So much for American led nation building in Afghanistan.
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Good Neighbour Nov 19, 2021 06:22am
@Multani why to send them to UK. Should have remained in Pakistan.
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Akil Akhtar Nov 19, 2021 06:31am
western humanity depends upon how much propaganda they can get out of it....
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Syed Ahmed Nov 19, 2021 08:14am
Nyce work thanks kim an British government
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Sayyar Khan Nov 19, 2021 08:30am
They should Thank the Taliban. For letting them go.
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Vijay Nov 19, 2021 09:27am
“Long Live Kim Kardashian” !
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Shezi Nov 19, 2021 09:59am
At least they are in UK, which every afghan wish. They love their country but will never live in it.
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Ramay Nov 19, 2021 10:17am
After bombing the country for about 20 years, it is a wellcome move especially Kim needs to be praised.
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Cye Nov 19, 2021 11:40am
Now let’s hope these Afghans don’t spew venom against Pakistan. Because once they are abroad I don’t know y they start hating Pakistan.
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