Thursday, December 23, 2021
Afghan women flown out
Rabbi and Kim Kardashian rescue female soccer players
A rabbi from New York helps young Afghan soccer players to flee the war zone to Pakistan. But they cannot stay there long. A feverish search for an airplane begins – and then all of a sudden, star influencer Kim Kardashian makes her grand entrance.
The similarities between Moshe Margaretten and Kim Kardashian are limited to a minimum. Here the orthodox rabbi without a TV from a problematic district of Brooklyn, there the dazzling influencer with star air and residence in glamorous Hollywood. But the unlikely duo got together to rescue young Afghan soccer players and created a small pre-Christmas miracle.
More than 30 youth players worked together to get Margaretten and Kardashian out of the war zone – and put an end to their constant fear of death. The action only came about through a chain of happy coincidences: Originally Margaretten only wanted to save a man from the Jewish community in Kabul, he hired a helper in Mordechai Kahana and collected the necessary 50,000 US dollars with his aid organization Tzedek.
But the brother in faith did not want to, he refuses to leave the last existing synagogue in Afghanistan. An alternative had to be found. Kahana drew Margaretten’s attention to the captain of the Afghan women’s national team, Khalida Popal, who had already fled to Denmark. This sounded the alarm in an interview, pointing to the particular risk posed to the female soccer players.
Your former teammates should burn all football items as soon as possible, recommended Popal. After all, the Taliban would not accept women who play sports. Margaretten liked the new evacuation idea, and together with Popal he drew up a list of priorities. The most famous and therefore most endangered female soccer players should be rescued first. And indeed, they were able to leave for Australia two days before the airport in Kabul closed.
But that was by no means the end of the work, the next generation should also be helped. The 35 players and their families were only able to flee to Pakistan overland, their visas were only valid for a short time. That gave Margaretten sleepless nights, even though he has absolutely nothing to do with football. His children are not allowed to play themselves or watch games on television.
And yet he was feverishly looking for a sponsor for an evacuation flight to England. A human rights lawyer suddenly made contact with star influencer Kardashian. She was generous with her fashion brand and spontaneously paid the soccer players for the flight from Lahore to London. The English first division club Leeds United now wants to help them return to normal life.
“We can’t wait to see them play football again,” said Leeds boss Andrea Radrizzani. But much more important: the soccer players are finally safe again shortly before Christmas.