“They do not exist.”Her countrywoman Manizha Talash was disqualified from this year’s Paris Olympics after unveiling a cape with the message “Free Afghan Women” during the breakdancing events. She was removed from the competition for making a “political protest.”Hamidi has been bombarded with death threats since criticizing Afghanistan's men's cricket team. Li-Lian Ahlskog Hou/CNN“With these three words I spoke with all the world and asked them, please, let’s do some practical action for Afghan women. “They are the Taliban team for me, not the Afghan team,” she said, a similar accusation she has leveled against the Afghan cricket team, calling for Afghan sports teams to be banned from the Olympics, following bans on South Africa during the apartheid era. The term gender apartheid was first used by Afghan women in the late 1990s during the first Taliban regime.

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