Zakia Khodadadi, an Afghan para-taekwondo athlete who won a bronze medal as part of the Refugee Team at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games a few months ago, has been nominated for the title of Athlete of the Year 2024 by the National Institute of Sport, Expertise, and Performance (INSEP) in France.
In a press release, the institute stated that Zakia Khodadadi is the first member of INSEP to win a medal in the Olympic competitions.
It is worth mentioning that the National Institute of Sport, Expertise, and Performance (Institut National du sport, de l’expertise et de la performance) is a full-time sports and educational institution and a center for training elite athletes located in the outskirts of Paris.
Zakia Khodadadi sought refuge at INSEP in France after the political regime change in Afghanistan in 2021, where she continued her training under the guidance of Habib Niaré, a former Olympic medalist from France.
The bronze medal at the Paris Olympics represents not only a sporting achievement for Zakia Khodadadi but also a symbol of resilience and perseverance against adversity for athletes around the world.
This Afghan female athlete became the European champion in para-taekwondo in 2023.
She previously stated in interviews that she began practicing taekwondo at the age of 11. She trained secretly in a gym in her hometown of Herat because there were simply no other opportunities for women to safely engage in sports in Afghanistan.
While Ms. Khodadadi has been nominated for the INSEP Athlete of the Year award, it has been over three years since the current government has prohibited girls above sixth grade from attending school, university, and participating in sports in Afghanistan.
This action by the current government has resulted in millions of female students being deprived of education.
It is also noteworthy that women have been banned from going to sports clubs, restaurants, public baths, being examined by male doctors, traveling without a male guardian, and working in both domestic and international NGOs as well as offices of the United Nations in Afghanistan.
