The SKIMS founder has helped to rescue members of Afghanistan girls soccer team and their families, flying them to safety for a new life in Britain after Taliban returned to power.
- Nov 19, 2021
AceShowbiz - Kim Kardashian has helped members of a women's youth development soccer team escape Afghanistan for a new life in London.
The reality TV star has previously worked with Rabbi Moshe Margaretten, the founder of U.S. nonprofit group Tzedek Association, on criminal justice cases and, when he reached out to ask for her help with flying the team to safety, she offered to fund the entire rescue operation.
"I got a text message that Kim wants to fund the entire flight," Margaretten told NBC News of the journey that took 30 teenage players and their families from Pakistan to Britain early Thursday (18Nov21).
The Afghans will now spend 10 days in coronavirus quarantine and officials at English Premier League club Leeds United have offered to support the players, NBC News reports.
"The Afghan female footballers are well-known figures in the country. Their lives were in great danger because of people in the country who opposed their activism and wanted to stop their sport and educational activities," said Khalida Popal, a former captain of Afghanistan's national women's team who has led evacuation efforts for female athletes.
Thousands of Afghans have been evacuated from Kabul after it fell to Taliban militants in August (21) after the withdrawal of U.S troops.
Many more have made it to neighbouring countries in hopes of traveling to the West, including the members of the soccer team, who managed to reach Pakistan and secure U.K. visas.
When they could not find a flight out of the country, with their Pakistani visas due to expire, a chartered plane was the only answer.
Hundreds of female athletes have left Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power and began limiting women's education and freedoms.
Kardashian's spokeswoman confirmed that Kim had made the donation through her SKIMS line of shapewear.
