Feature: Afghan female para-athlete fighting for equality, honor one kick at a time

During a training session alongside two dozen teenaged boys in the western Herat province, Zakia Khudadadi, a taekwondo martial artist, said that she is preparing to compete in upcoming championships across the world.

Khudadadi, 18, a silver medallist in the 1st African 2016 Para-Taekwondo Championships held in Egypt in May, also said that while she was proud of her latest achievements in the sport, she wanted to be to become a gold medal-winning Paralympian and bring more honor to her country.

"I won a silver medal after defeating opponents from Nigeria, Egypt and Poland and I am hopeful about winning more competitions and bringing more medals home to my country in future championships," the jubilant teenager and the first female Afghan para-athlete in this discipline, told Xinhua.

Khudadadi went on to explain how 12 physically challenged athletes from across the globe competed in the inaugural event held in Egypt.

However, she also said that her country's National Olympic Committee (NOC) pays little attention to physically challenged sportspeople and the initiatives necessary to improve their abilities.

"I have missed several chances to attend international competitions, including the Paralympic Games in foreign countries, due to the negligence of the NOC,"Khudadadi said.

Decked out in a yellow dress and wearing a white scarf on her head during the training session held in the slums of Herat province, Khudadadi, who has been disabled since birth, complained that a "lack of facilities and a professional coach to train her"is stifling her ambitions to succeed.

"A lack of appropriate facilities here has forced me to exercise with the boys in this club everyday for at least one hour," Khudadadi said.

In conservative Afghanistan, in both professional and sporting circles, males and females mixing together is considered shameful and taboo.

However, the brave female martial artist explained that she has no other option other than to exercise in the same club attended by the boys.

Post-Taliban Afghanistan has made some tremendous achievements in the field of sport over the past 15 years and its athletes have brought home medals from regional and international completions including the Beijing Olympic Games held in 2008 and the London 2012 Olympic Games.

"I am hopeful of winning more medals for my country in the future, particularly at the Paralympics Games to be held in Tokyo in 2020," said a determined Khudadadi. Enditem