Afghan woman participated in Olympic Games for the first time!

by Hamid Hamidullah,
Kabul, Afghanistan

Friba Razayee (18) is the Afghan Judo athlete participating in the Olympic Games in Athens 2004. She demonstrated to the world of sports that Afghan girls can take part in future Olympic Games with reasonable results in her mach against Cecilia Blanco from Spain on August 18th, 2004.

In Afghanistan women could not go to sport independently while the strict ruling of Taleban but, now the ground is being paved for women to go to sport. She did help removing discrimination between male and female in sport by participating in the tournament in Athens.

Friba has had much less experience in Judo than her opponent. This was her weakness in her first competition againest Cecilia Blanco. But her serious decisions will fulfill her future hopes.

The sport fans in Afghanistan are very delighted because two Afghan women are participating in such historical competitions for the first time.

Massoda Rasikh (18), student in Malalay high school says:

“I am as happy as I can’t explain that, Friba loosing in the competition does not matter since the most important is that she broke the silence and in fact she is calling other new peoples towards sports. This is the great impression I have in my life. We should and will try our best to gain considerable victories to the people and our most beloved country in our future competitions.”

Picture impressions from the tournament:

View of the Ano Liossia Olympic Hall in Athens, the venue of the Olympic judo tournament.


A judo match is watched by three referees. A decision is only valid of at least two of the three agree.

The referrees bow. This is part of the very old Japanese tradition of judo.


The match follows strong rules. There is a fairly long list of things not allowed. It covers such technical and tactical infringements as location (eg stepping off the mat) or disadvantaging the opponent (eg stalling or excessive defensive gripping) and grave infringements which involve the integrity of the players or are against the spirit of Judo. Penalties in judo are severe, each penalty results in a score to the opponent, each subsequent penalty being a higher score to the opponent, the previous score-by-penalty being removed. Four infringements means an immediate win to the opponent. A single grave infringement means a disqualification, not only from the match but from the tournament.

The Result:

Friba Razayee was defeated by Ippon after 45 seconds.

1000  / 0000  (KKS)