OSLO — Fariba Rezayee, Afghanistan’s first female Olympian, delivered a searing personal and political address at the 2025 Oslo Freedom Forum on Wednesday, condemning both the Taliban’s repression and what she called the world’s complicity in abandoning Afghan women.
Speaking during one of the forum’s most emotionally charged panels, Rezayee — who competed in judo at the 2004 Athens Olympics — recounted the cost of her historic achievement: death threats, verbal abuse, and an armed attack, simply for defying conservative norms. “I was attacked in broad daylight just because I had short hair and no hijab,” she told the audience.
Her testimony traced a continuum of gender-based violence in Afghanistan, beginning before the Taliban’s return to power and accelerating under their current regime. “What we’re seeing now is not just repression,” she said, “it’s a slow purge of women from Afghan society — systematic, legalized, and deliberate.”
Rezayee directed sharp criticism at NATO member states, particularly Norway, for normalizing diplomatic relations with Taliban leaders while Afghan women faced escalating brutality. “How is it possible that the Taliban were treated with VIP protocol in Oslo while Afghan women were being flogged in Kabul that very day?” she asked, referencing the controversial 2022 visit by Taliban officials to the Norwegian capital.
She urged world leaders to draw a clear line between the people of Afghanistan and the Taliban, whom she described as “men who have nothing to do with our proud history, our culture, or our language.”
“We are sick and tired of the hypocrisy of world leaders. You can’t say the Taliban are bad and then shake their hands. Please, distinguish between the people of Afghanistan and the Taliban. They do not represent me. Afghanistan is a country with a beautiful language, rich culture, and proud history — and the world has handed us over to people who have nothing to do with that heritage,” she said.
Now based in Canada, Rezayee continues to advocate for Afghan women’s education. She launched the “Afghanistan Learns Online” initiative and a scholarship program for girls — which, she noted, recently received over 2,000 applications for just four spots. “It crashed our email server,” she said, a stark indicator of the demand for opportunity among Afghan youth.
Ending her speech with a personal note, Rezayee shared the daily struggle of resilience. “I wake up and wear a brave face like a soldier,” she said. “But my war is peaceful — fought with education, with hope, and with the voices of women who’ve been silenced.”
Her final appeal was direct: “Each of you can do something. Speak. Write. Apply pressure. Because extremism knows no borders. If the Taliban go unchecked, Afghanistan will become a global base for terrorism.”
