A strong message from the women’s road race in Paris 2024after just over 35 kilometers of running. In command is a small group of five athletes, two of whom are Afghan sisters Yulduz and Fariba Hashimiand even if their attempt fails, they can already call themselves moral winners. In fact, they are here to send a signal. Having fled Afghanistan in 2021, they would like women to be able to study and practice sports freely in their country too, and to those who asked them why they chose to represent Afghanistan in these Games instead of being part of the Refugee team, they replied, “We want to do it because things have to change.”
But they are aware of the risks they run because they have gone against the Taliban regime: it is no coincidence that Yulduz and Fariba’s family has been forced to move house four times, “and our little brother – they said in recent days – was wounded with a knife in the head. The person who did it told them “this is for your sisters who are at the Olympics”. But the Hashimi sisters do not give up, assisted in Italy by the association “Road to Equality” through which the former world champion Alessandra Cappellotto, their ‘second mother’, supports cyclists who come from nations in difficulty and for whom life at home is difficult. And now this escape, this time only competitive, through the streets of Paris, along a magnificent route to send a message of hope to the world. Afghan women are there, there they are in front, now give them back a real life, the right to education and the right to dedicate themselves to sport. Yulduz and Fariba have already won, no matter what happens.