CYCLING FOR FREEDOM, FROM KABUL TO BERLIN.

KARACHI -- It has been two years since the fall of Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, when the Taliban took control on August 15. It is also two years since Kabul became a place where dreams die for cyclists and athletes like Zahra Abbasi.

'To be a woman means being a second-class citizen under the Taliban rule,' Abbasi explains, much like several other Afghan women here in Berlin, who participated in the Discover Football festival that started on August 12 with a two-day symposium on the Unseen Game being the theme this year. It followed the tournament that had players, referees, and coaches along with experts representing more than 15 countries, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Ukraine, Georgia, Turkey, India, South Sudan, Gambia, South Africa, Kenya, Colombia, Argentina, Uganda.

The festival highlighted issues around governing sports federations, and socio-political issues that force women's games to be invisible in different countries. Due to its inclusive nature, the festival works as a haven for women and other minority groups.

Like the Afghanistan women's football team captain Khalida Popal, Abbasi has been among the women telling the stories of Afghan women.

Abbasi and her sister Manizha had been working as social media managers for the event, but their stories were similar to those of the participants of the tournament in Berlin. They endured oppression and fled their homes, alone in many instances. Only to live a life where playing a sport, going to school, working as a journalist or something as simple as wearing a lipstick or a pair of high-heeled shoes is not a grave sin that would get them punished for good. They left their loved ones behind without knowing when they would see them again, and escaped the prison that Afghanistan had become for them.

Fleeing the country was the only way for her and her family to survive like many others who wanted to live a modern life with simple rights where they were allowed to dream of becoming anything other than a doctor or a teacher.

'I was training to be a part of the Afghanistan cycling team when everything ended for girls like me," says Abbasi. 'It has been one of my dreams to cycle for my country because for us women it has always been so difficult to exercise basic rights for something like cycling. I only began riding a bicycle to go to school an get back to save money on transportation. But it was so hard to do that because our society never allowed us to do it even before the...