Ready To Compete In Tokyo Olympics, Afghan Refugee Masomah Ali Zada: I Will Represent Humanity

JAKARTA - Afghan refugee Masomah Ali Zada ​​hopes to be a beacon for women forced to leave their country or forgo their sporting dreams when she crosses the starting line for the Tokyo Olympics.

The 24-year-old cyclist was stoned and physically assaulted in his homeland for daring to wear sportswear and pedal a bicycle in public.

He will compete in the 2020 Olympics for the Olympic Refugee Team. He feels he has an obligation to represent the 82 million people around the world who have been forced to leave their homeland or as refugees.

She also sees herself as a representative of women living in a repressive society, as well as a sportswoman who wears the hijab.

But he was willing to bear the burden and at the same time proud.

"I will represent humanity," Ali Zada ​​told AFP.

"It's not just for me. It's more for all the women in Afghanistan and all the women in every country like Afghanistan who don't have cycling rights," he said as the hardline Taliban again swept across the country.

"And also for the sake of all refugees forced to leave their homeland."

"I want to open the door for other refugees who will come after me."

Ali Zada ​​will face 25 Olympic women's highway time trial participants.

When he races on July 28 on the 22.1km track, it will be the first time he has raced in a time trial.

Fifty-six refugee athletes were awarded solidarity scholarships by the IOC International Olympic Committee, and 29 of them were selected to compete in the Tokyo Olympics.

Ali Zada ​​was given a month of intensive training at the UCI World Cycling Center in Aigle, western Switzerland, before arriving in Japan on Wednesday.

Jean-Jacques Henry, her trainer at the training center, called her the best female cyclist Afghanistan has ever produced, and was impressed by the athlete's rapid progress.

Hailing from the minority Hazara community, Ali Zada ​​started cycling while in exile in Iran. After his family returned to Kabul, he joined the national team at the age of 16.

Little did he know that cycling in Afghanistan would lead to physical attacks, stones, family pressure and verbal abuse.

"I knew it would be difficult, but I didn't expect someone to beat us," he said.

"The first year I started cycling, someone hit me. He was in the car. He hit me from behind."

"Almost all women who ride bicycles in Afghanistan experience the same thing. People insult us," said Ali Zada.

Male athletes in sportswear also face problems in Afghanistan, but the treatment of female athletes is appalling.

His male teammates formed a circle around Ali Zada ​​to hide him in the cycling group.

As he continued to win races, his name became increasingly recognized, and the pressure to quit grew even greater, even from his own relatives.

His uncle asked his parents to stop Ali Zada's activities.

Eventually, the pressure grew so much that in 2017 his family decided to apply for asylum in France.

"It hurts to be forced to leave your own country. But there is no other choice. I think every refugee will understand," he said.

Ali Zada ​​spent two years in college before finally earning a bachelor's degree in civil engineering in Lille and going to college while cycling.

The experience has made the athlete with a calm, religious and soft-spoken nature increase his self-confidence.

"I'm a person who has never found a place and always looks for the best. But thanks to that I tried hard," he concluded.