Manizha Talash, the refugee who was disqualified Friday from Olympic breaking for wearing a cape that read “Free Afghan Women” during competition, explained this week that she protested with a cape made from a burqa, a symbol in her homeland of how “women have no agency in their lives,” and stated that “the world has forgotten about Afghan women.”
Talash, known as B-girl Talash, would not have advanced if she had not been disqualified; she lost her match with India Sardjoe, known as B-girl India. Talash, who is originally from Afghanistan and sought asylum in Spain in 2021 after fleeing Taliban rule, was representing the Refugee Olympic Team. The disqualification of the 21-year-old was immediate because political statements and slogans are banned at the Olympics. She apologized to the International Olympic Committee, the Refugee Team, the World DanceSport Federation and the Spanish Olympic Committee but wrote on Instagram that her message was not political.
“The world has forgotten about Afghan women,” she wrote, saying she is from the streets of Kabul. “… I know the rules at the Olympics say no politics in sports. But my message is not a political slogan. It is a statement about basic human rights. I am a B-girl and breaking was born out of hip-hop from the Black and Hispanic communities fighting against discrimination in New York in the 1970s and ’80s. I began breaking in Afghanistan, where it is illegal for girls to train. I put my life at risk to do it because I love it. Breaking is a form of expression and so I felt that this is what I had to do, even if it meant being disqualified.
“For those of you watching me, I ask that you please turn your attention to Afghanistan. The girls in my country can’t do anything. These are my friends, classmates and neighbors – they have essentially no rights. They cannot study, work and can barely leave the house. But they deserve to be free.”
Talash, the first known breakdancer in Afghanistan, described making “wings from the fabric of a burqa” to symbolize that “one day soon [women] can fly.” She included a slide show of women in burqas in her homeland and of her protest.
“The burqa is a garment that conceals all of a women’s body, leaving only a caged patch for her eyes. It is specific to the Taliban and to Afghanistan and is the most extreme type of religious covering for women,” she wrote. “Now, in my home country it is a requirement. I want to make it clear that I support women who choose to wear or not wear religious coverings, whether it’s in Kabul or Paris. They should always be free to decide for themselves, but in Afghanistan this is not the case.
“Women have no agency in their lives. With the fabric of this burqa that represents so much, I want to show the girls back home that even in the most difficult circumstances, they have the strength to transform things. From a burqa they can make wings. If they are in a cocoon, one day soon they can fly.”
The competition between Talash and Sardjoe was a one-off pre-qualifier that was added in May when Talash was included after missing registration for qualifying events. The IOC’s executive board invited her to participate when it learned of her efforts to defy the Taliban.
Breaking will not be included in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, but the WDSF, the sport’s global governing body, plans to push for its return in the 2032 Games in Brisbane, Australia.
Talash was one of 16 B-girls competing in Paris. She explained in an interview with The Washington Post last summer why she took up breaking four years ago. “I do it for me, my life,” she said in Spanish. “I do it to express myself and to forget about everything else going on if I need to.”