Burning their football team uniforms, deleting their social
media accounts, going into hiding, narrowly avoiding gunfire, getting trampled
and beaten by the Taliban, and then wading through sewer water in hope of a
rescue. This was the ordeal the Afghanistan women’s football team had to go
through while trying to flee the country, according to former team coach Haley
Carter.

The 86 Afghan athletes, officials, and their family members
were eventually airlifted to safety, thanks to an internationally coordinated effort
involving six countries.

“I can’t believe that a ragtag group of six women, some
human rights lawyers, football coaches, and a program director managed to use
our networks and our resources to get these women out,” Carter was quoted
by CNN as saying.

Carter joined the Afghan women’s team in 2016 as an assistant
coach. The team itself was formed just in 2007.

“We made it our mission to empower those women. We
wanted to create a football team that could compete at the international level.
But we all knew that this effort was something much, much bigger than football.
We gave them the opportunity to use sport to get out of the house, to get an
education,” Carter told CNN.

Carter is currently involved with the Antigua and Barbuda
team and is no longer professionally involved with the Afghan women’s team. But
according to her, the bond is unbreakable.

Also read: Heartbreaking, challenging: UK military chief on Afghanistan evacuation

And indeed, those relationships certainly helped when
the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in the middle of August. The team and
their well-wishers quickly realized that their lives were about to dramatically
change. Khalida Popal, the team’s former captain, and Carter took it on
themselves to evacuate the team.

And they were helped by human rights advocates Kat Craig and
Alison Battisson, former Afghanistan women’s football coach Kelly Lindsey and
the Olympic swimmer Nikki Dryden, thus completing what Carter calls a “ragtag
group of six”.

Also read: Baby girl born on Afghanistan flight to UK named Eve

“We have a team that’s working 24 hours, taking
tactical naps to tag out for each other. Last night, I got three-and-a-half
hours sleep and I feel like it was the best sleep I have gotten in days,”
Carter said.

When she got the confirmation of the team’s safety, Carter wrote
her emotions on Twitter.

 “I’ve never
cried tears of relief like I cried when I got the last pic,” she wrote.