Banned from football at home, Afghan women’s team reunite 8,000 miles away

She studies criminal justice at college, plays football and makes decisions independently. “Having that freedom is incredible,” she says.

Yet she admits she often feels guilty and desperately sad about the freedoms denied to women back home.

“Millions of girls don’t have the chance to study or follow their dreams. I feel I have to make the most of every opportunity.

“Sometimes I put too much pressure on myself,” she says, tears rolling down her face.

She thanks Khalida Popal, who founded the original Afghan women’s team, for pushing Fifa to recognise them now they are in exile. “To receive Fifa’s recognition without the approval of the Taliban” has made history, she says.

This official status is “something I’ll always be proud of”, she says.

When the BBC asked the Taliban’s director for sports, Ahmadullah Wasiq, about Fifa backing the women’s team, he declined to comment. But he said he would like Fifa to visit the country and resume its support for football there in general – the organisation largely withdrew after the Taliban came to power. Fifa has previously said any resumption of support would depend on women being allowed to play.

The game in Auckland turns out to be unforgiving. A single goal in the first match hands the Cook Islands a 1-0 victory. Three days later, despite the Afghan team’s best efforts, the Cook Islands win again, this time 3-0.

Yet for the players, these matches represent something far more significant than two defeats.

A return to the pitch and proof that despite exile, separation from their families and years of uncertainty, Afghanistan’s women footballers refused to disappear.