Operation Hoops for Humanity

Securing Resettlement in Tennessee (USA)

Stranded in Albania for nearly 1-1/2 years, Afghan basketball players resettle in the USA during the summer of 2023.

September 2024

“Today in Kabul, a female cat has more rights than an Afghan woman”

Meryl Streep made that alarmingly true statement to the United Nations General Assembly. The Taliban’s restrictions on Afghan women not only require them to be fully covered and accompanied by a male in public, it now forbids them to speak, recite poetry or sing in public.

The international community is showing solidarity by four countries—Canada, Australia, Germany and The Netherlands—taking the Taliban to the International Court of Justice for gender discrimination.

Equality League continues to support the Afghan member of the International Olympic Committee and a cohort of exiled Afghan women athletes to carry out the final goal of our Operation Hoops Humanitarian Mission: To advocate for the restoration of education and sport for the 21 million Afghan women and girls who remain in the country. We believe that this is an urgent global crisis.

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October 2023

Afghans Safely Arrive and Settle In

Afghan basketball group members arrived in Knoxville between May and August 2023. They quickly received 8 weeks of intensive English language training from the University of Tennessee English Language Institute. All the women have secured jobs and driver’s permits, and advocacy is currently underway to secure educational opportunities.

Equality League achieved our goal of safeguarding the emotional and physical health of the group from Afghanistan, in Albania, through to the USA. Our Operation Hoops mission now focuses on advocacy for their teammates, sisters, and all other Afghan women and girls who are being erased from society.

March 2023

15 Afghans Will Make Knoxville, Tennessee, Their Home!

On March 8, International Women's Day, our Operation Hoops co-founders Dr. Sarah Hillyer (UT Center for Sport, Peace & Society) and Michelle Marciniak (Sheex and former UT/WNBA Player) hosted “Journey to Safety: From Evacuation from Afghanistan to Resettlement in Tennessee” — to introduce our Afghan basketball group to the University of Tennessee and Knoxville communities.

Samira Asghari, the Afghan member of the International Olympic Committee and a former Afghan Women’s National Basketball Team Captain, was the featured speaker. The event kicked-off the UT community fundraising drive to provide English Institute language scholarships for every member of our group. To learn more or donate, write to csps@utk.edu

Our Story: Operation Hoops for Humanity

As the Taliban seized control of Afghanisan in August 2021, one of their first acts was to ban women and girls from playing sports. Female athletes, including national team players with strong media profiles, frantically burned their jerseys, buried their trophies, deactivated social media accounts, destroyed certificates, and hid other links to sport that could lead to reprisals. Then, they hid themselves and waited.

Afghan female athletes were largely forgotten and ignored by sport bodies, governments, human rights and refugee agencies - leaving individuals, charitable organizations like Equality League (EQL) and the University of Tennessee Center for Sport, Peace & Society to step in to help safeguard and support these high-risk individuals.

In October 2021, we succeeded in safeguarding 29 members of the Afghan basketball community. In partnership with FIFA (International Football Federation), Equality League helped evacuate current and former national team players, provincial players, coaches and a few relatives. They left their homes, families, friends, jobs and country with as little as one backpack and Canadian visa letters that the country ultimately refused to honor. Instead, the Afghans transited through Qatar and then to Albania where they have been stranded without a final destination.

Advocating for a Resettlement Country - December 2021 through May 2022

Equality League built a coalition to support the Afghan women athletes’ advocacy efforts calling for Canada and other countries to open their borders so that they may rebuild their lives, resume their educations, safely play sport, and pursue employment to support loved ones left behind. Coalition members include UT Center for Sport, Peace & Society, Athletes for Hope, Athlete Ally, Athletes for Impact, Global Athlete, equity sport, and Sheex. International Sports Press Association announced our campaign in January 2022. Read here.

USA Will Be Their Future Home

In May 2022, the USA agreed to accept their applications for resettlement and in October 2022, they received their case numbers and confirmation.

Operation Hoops for Humanity Goals

Goal 1
In May 2022, after seven months advocating for the opportunity, the USA allowed our group to submit P1 visa applications for resettlement. In October 2022, they received their case numbers and confirmation of acceptance. That was Goal 1 of our Operation Hoops for Humanity Mission.

Goal 2
As we awaited approval of their applications for resettlement in the USA, our second goal was to raise funds for the group’s urgent, then routine, dental, maternal, vision, skin, allergy and mental health services. Most had not seen a dentist or a doctor since evacuation. Two members were pregnant and delivered in late summer 2022. The group also needed sun and insect protection to cope with extreme conditions of their seaside Albanian town. The temperature regularly hit 90 degrees by 10 AM.

Goal 3
We provided the Equality League Athlete Advocacy Training on campaign creation, athletes’ rights as human rights, storytelling, and coalition building.

The female athletes learned how to identify, how to protect against, and how to report abuse in all forms. Through digital platforms they are sharing these lessons with teammates and sportswomen worldwide.

They will also continue to advocate for the evacuation of their teammates and the restoration of sport for women and girls who have become virtual prisoners in their homes. The Taliban does not allow women access to sport, education after 6th grade, work outside of the home, travel outside of the home without a male guardian, and travel outside the home unless covered from head to toe.

Please Support Their Resettlement in Knoxville, Tennessee

Goal 4
Our fourth and most urgent goal is to raise supplemental support beyond the modest government resources each refugee will receive. We are supporting 15 Afghans’ resettlement in Knoxville, Tennessee, by June 2023. The support will boost the standard allocation of benefits (housing, food stamps, transportation, job and school applications, etc.) to ease the stresses of adjusting to a new environment.

Dr. Sarah Hillyer (UT Center for Sport, Peace & Society) and Michelle Marciniak (Former UT & WNBA Player and co-founder of Sheex) traveled to Albania, coached, and bonded with the Afghan basketball players. They are volunteering countless hours to mobilize support for the group’s arrival by the end of June 2023.