PARIS: Zakia Khudadadi has spent most of her life breaking through glass ceilings. Or rather, smashing through them with a sidekick.
The taekwondo Paralympian made history in 2021 in Tokyo, becoming the first Afghan woman to compete in an international sporting event since the Taliban took back control of her country as US and NATO troops withdrew following 20 year of war.
Originally blocked from competing following the rise of the Taliban, she was later evacuated from Afghanistan and allowed to compete for her country following a plea from the international community.
In the 2024 Paralympics, part of the wider Olympic competitions in Paris, Khudadadi said she is competing in the name of women in her country who have gradually been stripped of their rights over the past three years.
“It’s hard for me because I’d like to compete under my country’s flag,” she said. But “life for all girls and women in Afghanistan is forbidden. It’s over. Today, I’m here to win a medal in Paris for them. I want to show strength to all women and girls in Afghanistan.”
Khudadadi is competing for the Refugee Paralympic Team, while other athletes are seeking medals under Afghanistan’s flag, such as Olympic sprinter Kimia Yousofi. Yousofi’s parents fled during the Taliban’s previous rule and she was born and raised in neighboring Iran. She said she wanted to represent her country, flaws and all, and wanted to “be the voice of Afghan girls.”
For Khudadadi, she began practicing taekwondo at 11, training in secret at a gym in her hometown of Herāt because there were simply no other opportunities for women to safely practice sports. Despite a closed culture around her, Khudadadi said her family was open and would push her to be active.
Compounding her struggles to compete in Afghanistan, she said, was her disability.
Despite having “one of the largest populations per capita of persons with disabilities in the world” due to conflict, people with disabilities are often shunned and blocked from Afghan society, according to Human Rights Watch. Women are often disproportionately affected.
Born without one forearm, Khudadadi said she spent her life hiding her arm. It was only when she started competing that it began to change.
“Before I started in sports, I protected myself a lot with my arm. But little by little ... I started showing my arm, but only in the club. Only while competing,” she said.
As she began to compete, she said she felt that stigma begin to melt away. Taekwondo once again became her path to freedom, and she gained attention in 2016, when she medaled internationally for the first time.
That all changed five years later, when the Taliban made a dramatic ascent to power following the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. While preparing for Tokyo, Khudadadi was trapped in the country’s capital, Kabul.
The International Paralympic Committee originally issued a statement saying the Afghan team wouldn’t participate in the Games held in 2021 “due to the serious ongoing situation in the country.” But in a bid to compete, Khudadadi released a video pleading with the international community for help.
“Please, I urge you all, from the women around the globe, institutions for the protection of women, from all government organizations, to not let the rights of a female citizen of Afghanistan in the Paralympic movement to be taken away, so easily,” she said. “I don’t want my struggle to be in vain.”
She was evacuated to Tokyo in 2021 to compete, leaving behind her family.
By doing so, she became the first Afghan female Paralympian in nearly two decades. In 2023, she won gold at the the European Para Championships.
Following her flight from Afghanistan, she settled in Paris, but she said she aches for the mix of cultures that paints her country and the openness of the people wandering the bustling streets of Kabul.
“I hope some day I’ll be able to return to Afghanistan, to Kabul, to live life together in freedom and peace,” she said.
Thousands of miles away in Khudadadi’s hometown of Herat, 38-year-old Shah Mohammad was among throwing their support behind Khudadadi and other Afghan female athletes in Paris.
“We are happy for the Afghan women who have gone to the Olympics, but my wish is that one day women from inside Afghanistan can participate in the Games and be the voice of women from the country,” Mohammad said.
That day is unlikely any time soon.
The Taliban have cut women from much of public life and blocked girls from studying beyond the sixth grade as part of harsh measures they have imposed since 2021 despite initially promising more moderate rule. Just in January, the United Nations said the Taliban are now restricting Afghan women’s access to work, travel and health care if they are unmarried or have no male guardian.
They haven’t just banned sports for women and girls, they have intimidated and harassed those who once played.
But even before the Taliban’s return to power, women’s sports were opposed by many in the country’s deeply conservative society, seen as a violation of women’s modesty and of their role in society.
Still, the previous, Western-backed government had programs encouraging women’s sports and school clubs, leagues and national teams.
For Khudadadi, the IOC’s refugee team helped her and other athletes who have fled their countries continue their careers. The Paralympian trains long hours — eyes set on a gold medal in Paris — with deep frustration as she’s watch strides for women in her country erode, and Afghanistan once again fall out of the global spotlight.
One question simmers in Khudadadi’s mind: “Why the world has forgotten Afghan women?”
Still, for others like Mohammad Amin Sharifi, 43, watching Khudadadi and other Afghan Olympians in Paris, especially women, has been a point of pride for people like him in Afghanistan.
“Right now, we need Afghan women’s voices to be raised in any way possible and the Olympics are the best place for that,” Sharifi said from Kabul. “We are happy and proud of the women representing the Afghan people.”
First Afghan woman to compete internationally after Taliban takeover seeks Olympic gold in Paris
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First Afghan woman to compete internationally after Taliban takeover seeks Olympic gold in Paris
- Zakia Khudadadi is competing for the Refugee Paralympic Team, while other athletes are seeking medals under Afghanistan’s flag
- Khudadadi began practicing taekwondo at 11, training in secret at a gym in Herāt because there were simply no other opportunities
Greek coast guard says over 600 migrants rescued from 2 fishing boats
- The first fishing boat, carrying 352 people, was spotted overnight about 55 kilometers south of the tiny island of Gavdos
- The second was found 90 kilometers south of the island of Crete with 278 people on board
ATHENS: More than 600 migrants were rescued overnight and early Friday from two wooden fishing boats found sailing miles (kilometers) from the southernmost part of Greece, the country’s coast guard said.
The first fishing boat, carrying 352 people, was spotted overnight about 30 nautical miles (35 miles, 55 kilometers) south of the tiny island of Gavdos, the coast guard said. Passengers were rescued by a ship from the European border patrol agency FRONTEX, aided by a coast guard patrol boat and four other vessels.
The second was found 50 nautical miles (about 60 miles, 90 kilometers) south of the island of Crete with 278 people on board. The passengers were picked up by a passing Portuguese-flagged cargo ship. In both cases, the migrants were transported to Crete.
There was no immediate information on the nationalities of those on board the two fishing boats.
Another two boats carrying migrants were located in the same area on Thursday, the coast guard said. One, carrying 73 men, was found south of Gavdos and another with 26 people, including one woman and three minors, was found near the coast of southern Crete.
The coast guard said those on the smaller boat told authorities they had set sail the previous evening from Tobruk in Libya, and had each paid smugglers either 4,000 euros ($5,500) for their passage to Greece. Two Sudanese teenagers, one aged 16 and the other 19, were arrested on suspicion of migrant smuggling after other passengers identified them as having been operating the boat.
Greece has been on one of the preferred routes into the European Union for people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia for decades.
Arrivals from neighboring Turkiye to the east and the Libyan coast to the south spiked last year, with Greece recording more than 60,000 people arriving — the vast majority by sea — in 2024, compared to just over 48,000 the previous year, according to figures from the UN refugee agency.
As of June 15 this year, a total of 16,290 arrivals were recorded, with more than 14,600 of those by sea.
With authorities closely patrolling the eastern sea border with Turkiye to prevent migrant boats reaching nearby Greek islands, smugglers appear to be increasingly opting for the much longer and riskier Mediterranean Sea crossing from the north African coast to the southern tip of Greece, using larger boats into which they can cram more people.
Health officials issue warnings as UK bakes in the first heat wave of 2025
- Temperatures are expected to peak at 34 degrees Celsius
- The UK Health Security Agency has issued an amber heat health alert covering all of England
LONDON: British health officials are warning people across the country to take precautions when out in the sun as the UK bakes under its first heat wave of the year.
Temperatures are expected to peak at 34 degrees Celsius (93 degrees Fahrenheit) in some parts of eastern England on Saturday following a week of unusually warm weather, according to the national weather agency the Met Office. That’s about 12 C (22 F) higher than normal for this time of year.
The UK Health Security Agency has issued an amber heat health alert covering all of England because of increased health risks for people over 65 and those with heart and lung problems.
“Heat can result in serious health outcomes across the population, especially for older adults or those with pre-existing health conditions,” Dr. Agostinho Sousa, head of the UKHSA, said in a statement. “It is therefore important to check on friends, family and neighbors who are more vulnerable and to take sensible precautions while enjoying the sun.”
Saturday is expected to be the hottest day of the heat wave, with temperatures falling slightly on Sunday and dropping back into the more normal temperatures next week, the Met Office said. The heat alert is currently scheduled to remain in effect until Monday morning.
Unusually, temperatures in London this week have been higher than in many parts of Western Europe. That’s because the high temperatures are not the result of hot air moving north from the Iberian Peninsula or North Africa as is often the case, the Met Office said.
Instead, this weather system originated in air high over the Atlantic Ocean south of Greenland. As it approaches the UK, it descends toward ground level, causing it to warm rapidly, Chief Meteorologist Matthew Lenhert said.
That said, it has been plenty hot in Europe too. Aviation enthusiasts attending the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget, north of Paris, this week sought the shade of a Boeing 777’s wing, cooling off as temperatures hovered in the low 30s C (mid-80s F.)
Met Office scientists this week published research showing that climate change is increasing the likelihood of extreme high temperatures in the UK The chance of temperatures exceeding 40 C (104 F) is now more than 20 times higher than it was in the 1960s, the researchers said.
In Java, Indonesian conservationist leads efforts to protect endangered silvery gibbons
- Rahayu Oktaviani won the 2025 Whitley Award, which recognizes grassroots conservation leaders
- There are fewer than 2,500 Javan gibbons in the wild, half of which live at a national park in West Java
JAKARTA: It was deep in the heart of an Indonesian rainforest in West Java that Rahayu Oktaviani, known as Ayu, first heard the “song” of the Javan gibbon.
She had her first encounter in 2008 while visiting the Mount Halimun Salak National Park for an undergraduate research project that required her to obtain a voice sample of the primate.
After waiting patiently for two weeks, coming in and out of the forest, she finally heard a Javan gibbon make its distinctive call.
She recalled how the sound she described as melodic and haunting had created a hush, as it echoed throughout the forest.
“It’s like the most beautiful song that I ever heard in my life. It’s so amazing,” Ayu told Arab News.
“They are non-human primates, but they can have like this beautiful song that can make all of … the creatures in the forest just keep silent.”
In the 17 years since, Ayu has dedicated her life to protecting the endangered animals, which are also known as “silvery gibbon,” or “owa jawa” locally.
A vast archipelago stretching across the equator, Indonesia is a top global biodiversity hotspot and home to over 60 species of primates, about 38 of which are endemic to the country.
“Maybe a lot of people know about the orangutan, about the rhino, about the tiger, but how about the overlooked species, just like, for example, the Javan gibbon? Not so many people know about them,” Ayu said.
Fewer than 2,500 Javan gibbons remain in the wild today, according to an estimate by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. About half of them live in the 87,000-hectare Mount Halimun Salak National Park, where Ayu and her team have laid the building blocks for grassroots conservation of the endangered species.
The gibbons rely on a continuous canopy for movement and foraging, making them particularly vulnerable to forest fragmentation and habitat degradation. As around 55 percent of Indonesia’s 270 million population lives in Java, the survival of the endemic species found only in the island’s forests is threatened by deforestation and illegal animal trafficking.
“With the situation in Java, where only like 10 percent of the natural forests are remaining, it means the forest itself should be intact. The forest itself still needs to be there not only for the Javan gibbons, but also for the other species that need this habitat for their lives,” Ayu said.
In 2020, she co-founded the conservation nongovernmental organization Kiara to expand efforts to save the Javan gibbon, believing that a key aspect in protecting the species was to engage the local community.
When she started out as a primatologist, spending much time in the forest to study the gibbons, Ayu did not realize that she was neglecting the very people who lived alongside the primates.
She recalled a question a villager posed at the time, a woman named Yanti, who was curious as to why Ayu always went to the forest but rarely stopped by the village.
“That’s a really casual and simple question, but it kept me thinking about what I’ve been doing so far. Is there something that I’ve been missing?” Ayu said.
Yanti’s query eventually led her to realize that she needed to do more with the community.
“We want to build together with the communities, where actually the gibbon can be something that they can be proud of,” she said. “Community engagement is 100 percent the core for conservation because without community, we cannot do everything.”
Ayu has employed people from Citalahab, a small village enclave located within the national park where locals make a living working in tea plantations or as rice farmers. Eight of them now work in the field alongside Ayu and her team to monitor the gibbons in the wild.
With Kiara, she also established the Ambu Halimun initiative, which involves 15 local women between the ages of 17 and 50 in ecoprinting workshops and financial literacy training.
In April, Ayu won the prestigious Whitley Award, which recognizes achievements in grassroots conservation, to advance her work in protecting the Javan gibbons.
With 50,000 British pounds ($67,000) from the award, Ayu plans to scale up her programs with Kiara to mitigate threats from human activities and to protect the gibbons’ habitat.
This includes developing a data management system to enhance park-wide conservation efforts, training the park rangers in biodiversity monitoring techniques, and guiding conservation strategies.
The 38-year-old, whose role models are “the Trimates,” primatologists Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Birute Galdikas, has faith that humans can live in coexistence with wildlife.
“Actually, if we put aside our ego, we are part of the ecosystem itself. We are not separated from the ecosystems, so it means we have to have more balance with nature,” she said. “And to do that, we also have to respect what else (is) actually living together with us in these ecosystems.”
Ayu said the Whitley Award served as good momentum to raise awareness about the species she loves dearly, the Javan gibbons.
“I believe not so many people are aware of the existence of the Javan gibbon, so it’s the right momentum to share the love for the Javan gibbon and make people care about it,” she said. “Because how can you care about the species if you know nothing about them?”
With the award and the coverage that it garnered internationally, Ayu is also hopeful about inspiring a new generation of conservationists from Indonesia.
“I think women also play a good part to be conservationists in the future … It’s also about … regeneration: the importance of nurturing the new generation of conservationists and primatologists from Indonesia, especially because we need more and more people who work in this field.”
UK working with Israel to arrange charter flights out of Tel Aviv, Lammy says
LONDON: Britain is working with Israeli authorities to arrange charter flights for British nationals from Tel Aviv when the airport reopens, foreign minister David Lammy said on Friday.
“As part of our efforts to support British nationals in the Middle East, the government is working with the Israeli authorities to provide charter flights from Tel Aviv airport when airspace reopens,” Lammy said in a statement.
Israel’s main international gateway, Ben Gurion Airport, closed last week due to Israel and Iran’s spiralling air war.
On Monday, the British government advised its citizens in Israel to register their presence with British authorities, saying it was monitoring the situation and considering options for assistance.
It said it had increased its logistical support for citizens who have turned to overland routes into Jordan and Egypt.
Taiwan to hold recall election for lawmakers that could reshape parliament
TAIPEI: Taiwan will hold a recall vote for around one quarter of parliament’s lawmakers — all from the main opposition party — next month, the election commission said on Friday, a move which could see the ruling party take back control of the legislature.
While Lai Ching-te won the presidency last year, his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lost its parliamentary majority, leaving the Kuomintang (KMT) and the much smaller Taiwan People’s Party with the most seats.
The KMT and the TPP have passed a series of measures, including swingeing budget cuts, angering the DPP, though the campaigns to gather enough signatures for the recalls were led by civic groups.
The opposition has 62 of parliament’s 113 seats and the DPP holds the remaining 51. The recall votes for 24 KMT lawmakers will take place on July 26, the election commission said.
The DPP has given full support for the recalls, releasing a video this week calling on people to vote yes and “oppose the communists” — a direct reference to China and what the party says is the opposition’s dangerous cosying up to Beijing.
The KMT has vowed to fight what it calls a “malicious recall” that comes so soon after the last parliamentary election in January 2024.
“The KMT calls on the people of Taiwan to oppose the green communists and fight against dictatorship, and vote ‘no’,” the party said in a statement after the recall vote was announced, referring to the DPP’s party colors.
The KMT says its engagement with China, which views separately-governed Taiwan as its own territory, is needed to keep channels of communication open and reduce tensions.
China has rejected multiple offers of talks from Lai, branding him a “separatist,” and has increased military pressure against the island.
Recall campaigns against DPP lawmakers failed to gather enough valid signatures.
For the recalls to be successful, the number of votes approving the measure must be more than those opposing it, and also exceed one-quarter of the number of registered voters in the constituency, so turnout will be important.
If the recall votes are successful, there will be by-elections later this year to select new lawmakers.
Taiwan’s next parliamentary and presidential elections are not scheduled until early 2028.
