She fled the Taliban, she is Afghan, a break dancer and is participating in the 2024 Paris Olympics

Breaking is a discipline that is making its Olympic debut in Paris this summer. Among the competitors is B-Girl Manizha Talash, 21, a young Afghan who fled the Taliban regime. The dancer is part of the Olympic Refugee Team.

The Refugee Olympic Team is sponsored by the International Olympic Committee for displaced athletes. There are 36 of them, including Manizha Talash, who will be among 16 B-Girls (that’s what break dancers are called) competing in the breaking competition on August 9.

It all started about five years ago, when the young woman, then aged 17, came across a video on Facebook showing a young man spinning on his head. It was a “Wow” effect for the teenager who immediately contacted him and signed up for his club. Small detail: out of the fifty breakers in the association, Manizha Talash is the only woman.

And the trouble starts very quickly. Even before the Taliban return to power, the young girl receives death threats, and escapes two attacks in Kabul. “A daythe young woman confided to the BBC, We had an event and there was an explosion just outside the club. We were told that if we loved life, we had to close it down.” And things got worse in August 2021, when Kabul fell to the Taliban once again, following the withdrawal of American troops. Manizha Talash then made a choice: with her 12-year-old brother, she packed into a car with members of her team heading to Pakistan, where she would live illegally for a year, with fear in her stomach.

“If I had stayed in Afghanistan, I think I would no longer exist. They would have executed me or stoned me to death.”

Manizha Talash, B-Girl

to franceinfo

Thanks to an NGO, she obtained refugee status with her brother in Spain. Direction Huesca, where she worked as a cleaning lady to survive, and where, above all, she could dance to her heart’s content for hours on end. Then word of mouth. A friend of a friend flooded the official email addresses of the members of the Olympic Committee. The refugee team was complete. But her story moved so much that she was given a place. Her training was taken care of. Today Manizha Talash says she doesn’t even think about a medal. Her victory is to be here, in Paris, for the Olympic Games.

@manizhatalash #afghangirls #girlpower ♬ breaking bboy舞曲 bboy soundtrack 8 – Front.z

Today, Manizha Talash is reunited with her mother, her little sister and her other brother who now live with her. She, who hopes to return to Afghanistan one day, says she wants to send a message to all little Afghan girls: “Never give up, despite the challenges and obstacles.”