When Manizha Talash ended her breakdance routine at the Paris Olympics by wrapping herself in a cape bearing the slogan “Free Afghan Women”, she knew she would be disqualified. “I had been thinking about this for four months, ever since I knew I was going to the Olympics,” says Talash, 21.
“I thought: I’ve got one minute when the whole world’s watching me and I thought, what’s more important, my dream, my life, or women in Afghanistan? I didn’t go there to win, that doesn’t matter to me.”
The cape was made from a burqa, seen by many as the ultimate symbol of the oppression of Afghan women. Continue
