An Afghan girls soccer team rebelled to play the game they love. Now they're refugees

LISBON, Portugal — The teenage girls in the red jerseys and black hijabs huddle close on the chilly pitch in this soccer-crazy city and chant their team's name.

"We are Ayenda!" they shout out, using the word for future in Dari, the Afghan dialect of Persian. "We are Afghanistan!"

This team includes some of Afghanistan's most talented young players, members of what used to be the Afghanistan Youth Women's Football Team, also known as the national girls soccer team. Like many people outside the United States, they call the game football.

"Football is our life," 15-year-old Aziza Alizada says during a break from practice. "I mean, we can't live without it."

Aziza and her teammates fled Afghanistan last summer, after the Taliban took over the country and banned women and girls from participating in sports. In extensive interviews with NPR, they gave perhaps their most detailed public account of their escape to Portugal and the personal