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15
Jun
The Harrogate Town coach who fled the Taliban
With Refugee Week beginning tomorrow (June 16), the Stray Ferret has spoken to a remarkable Afghan refugee who ended up as a coach at Harrogate Town.
Sabriyah Nowrozi played for the national football team before fleeing the Taliban when it took control of the country.
Her story even caught the attention of Kim Kardashian and Leeds United, who helped her to escape the country.
We met Nowrozi at Harrogate Town’s stadium to learn more.
Growing up
The 26-year-old grew up in Herat, Afghanistan. Located in the west, it is the third largest city in the country and has a deep cultural heritage.
Nowrozi had to work from the age of 10. She said:
We had a poor family, and I had to work hard to pay for my school and my university. I grew up when I was a child. I didn’t [get to] be a child, I didn’t play.
She found peace playing football.
Women were not allowed to play for teams in Afghanistan, so Nowrozi learned the game on the streets with neighbours.
Eventually, she found someone looking for female players in Herat. She initially joined a futsal team – smaller-sided games played with a smaller ball – but within a few months she had joined a newly established 11-a-side team.
After a few years, Nowrozi was told she would play for the national team. A defender by trade, she was made captain. She said it felt like she was dreaming.
She said that it was not easy to be accepted, though:
We had a really bad first year. The Taliban sent many letters to us saying ‘if you play football and something happens to you, that’s your responsibility, not ours’.
But after 10 years public opinion shifted. By 2021, Herat had 10 women’s football clubs and a league.
The Taliban takeover
On August 6, 2021, the Taliban captured Zaranj, the first provincial capital to fall back under their control. By August 15, they were at the gates of Kabul.
It took less than 10 days to gain total control of the country.
The morning they arrived in Herat, Nowrozi was on her way to work as a psychologist for UNICEF.
She recalls:
At around 12 we got a call saying we need to go home because the Taliban came. I [remember] seeing Taliban without shoes and big guns on their shoulders. They were running around shouting and firing the guns.
In that moment, I feel my life is finished. I worked hard to get that life and so quickly it was finished. All day I cried. Football [was] finished, studying, job, everything. I didn’t have anywhere to go.
The national team captain said that, because of her status, she feared the Taliban would come for her in her home.
Sabriyah Nowrozi volunteers on matchdays for Harrogate Town.
Fleeing Afghanistan
Nowrozi sent hundreds of emails to different countries pleading for help.
Having exhausted almost all options, her friends sent one last email to the English FA. After a few days, it replied saying it would try to help.
Leeds United picked up on Nowrozi’s pleas and helped the national team get out of Afghanistan.
The club paid for their expenses to help them cross the border to Pakistan and resettle in temporary accommodation.
Nowrozi said it was incredibly difficult leaving the country:
When I was crossing the border, I knew it was my last time. I felt so alone. No family, no anything. I can’t say in words how much I miss home. I grew up there. I had my friends there. I had my family there.
But I need to have a life, to have a second chance.
Under Taliban governance, women are now prevented from many of the freedoms they once possessed. Sport, studying and shopping are just some of the banned activities.
Nowrozi said that some of her friends stayed and their fathers or brothers were put in jail for allowing them to play football.
Once they had visas to leave for England, the team gained recognition from celebrity superstar Kim Kardashian. The reality television star paid for their flights and sent them football equipment including balls and boots.
Nowrozi and her team even had a video call with her.
Nowrozi was named the club's Community Captain in February.
Harrogate Town
On entering the UK, Nowrozi stayed in Doncaster before moving to Harrogate.
It was there that she applied to coach for Harrogate Town AFC, the only professional football team in the district.
In Afghanistan, she was one of the only women to learn to coach, having completed a level one course in Dubai.
She told us how the club has helped her resettle:
When I joined, I’ve seen they are all really nice people, really kind people. I never felt that I’m new.
My coaching has changed now and is better. They helped me to improve and learn more about many exercises and how to work with kids. They’ve improved me.
Nowrozi coaches part time for Harrogate Town, teaching kids to play football. She is also studying maths and English GCSEs at Harrogate College so she can go to university.
Looking forward
She wants to study psychology at university and pursue sports psychology.
Outside of studies, the footballer hopes to establish a team in Harrogate for refugees:
We have got talented kids who have come from other countries but it’s hard for them to pay for sessions.
Nowrozi hopes to return home, but knows that she cannot if the Taliban are there.
She said:
I hope the Taliban leave Afghanistan. They are not good government for people.
I hope we can have a really good government to be kind with people. We just need peace. We have a really beautiful country.
For now, Nowrozi will continue to make a big impact on the Harrogate community.
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