‘At this time of existential threat to women around the world, their first season of freedom is a triumph’

They fled the Taliban for a new life in Australia. What happened next for the stars of Afghanistan’s national women’s soccer team?

It’s an extraordinary story; you may already know fragments of it. Amid the chaos as the Taliban seized control of Kabul airport last year, a group of soccer players from the Afghanistan national women’s team fled for their lives and started anew in Australia.

But what happened next?

Liz Gooch followed their first year as a squad in Melbourne for our cover story this weekend, accompanied by Julian Kingma’s vivid photographs. The highs and lows of competition games are plotted against the minutiae of a player’s daily life. Studying English. Learning to drive. The seemingly ordinary moments that would be impossibly dangerous back home. You’ll discover where the team finished on the ladder, but that’s only part of the story. At this time of existential threat to women around the world, this first season of freedom should be viewed as a triumph.