Khalida Popal, the former captain of the Afghanistan women’s football team, on Thursday, urged players to get off social media, erase public identities and burn their kits as the country is again under Taliban rule. She said that all these should be done for safety’s sake.

Afghan women’s football league co-founder said that she had always used her voice to encourage young women “to stand strong, to be bold, to be visible”. However, this time she had a different message.

“Today I’m calling them and telling them, take down their names, remove their identities, take down their photos for their safety. Even I’m telling them to burn down or get rid of your national team uniform,” she said.

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“And that is painful for me, for someone as an activist who stood up and did everything possible to achieve and earn that identity as a women’s national team player,” Reuters quoted her as saying.

“To earn that badge on the chest, to have the right to play and represent our country, how much we were proud.”

Copenhagen-based Khalida told Reuters that the militants had killed, raped and stoned women in the past. She also added that female footballers were scared of what the future entails.

During their 1996-2001 rule, the Taliban prevented women from working. Girls were not allowed to go to school and women had to wear burqas to go out, and then only when accompanied by a male relative.

Those who broke the rules sometimes suffered humiliation and public beatings by the Taliban’s religious police.

Khalida said football had allowed women to take a strong stand for their rights, and to defy those who would have them silenced.

“They are so afraid. They are worried, they are scared, not only the players, but also the activists… they have nobody to go to, to seek protection, to ask for help if they are in danger,” she said of the situation now.

“They are afraid that any time the door will be knocked.

“What we are seeing is a country collapsing. All the pride, happiness to be there to empower women and men of the country is like it was just wasted,” she added.

A FIFA spokesperson said: “We are in contact with the Afghanistan Football Federation, and other stakeholders, and will continue to monitor the local situation and to offer our support in the weeks and months to come.”