Afghan female breaking athlete to compete in Olympics with Refugee team

(11 Jul 2024) RESTRICTION SUMMARY: ASSOCIATED PRESS Madrid, Spain - 11 June 2024 1. Various of Manizha Talash, Afghan breaking athlete practicing 2. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Manizha Talash, Refugee Olympic Team, Breaking Athlete: ++SOUNDBITE PARTIALLY COVERED++ "One guy was dancing and spinning on his head. At first I thought it was done with AI or a filter, but after researching a little bit and seeing videos of other people on YouTube and Google. I wanted to do it, I wanted to learn it. That’s why I went to this club but I saw that there were 55 boys and I was the only girl. So I told myself: ‘Why can’t I do it? Why can’t a girl do this?’ That’s why I started to learn." 3. Various of Manizha Talash, Afghan breaking athlete practicing 4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Manizha Talash, Refugee Olympic Team, Breaking Athlete: ++SOUNDBITE PARTIALLY COVERED++ "When the Taliban found out, they didn't like that a girl was dancing. Well, I don’t think it is dancing, it’s a sport. And now we can see it is part of the Games. They don’t like girls to dance or practice sports." ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVE: Kabul, Afghanistan - 28 May 2023 5. Various of women waiting in queue at food handout 6. Taliban moving women away 7. Girl standing against damaged wall with bullet holes 8. Birds flying ASSOCIATED PRESS Madrid, Spain - 11 June 2024 9. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Manizha Talash, Refugee Olympic Team, Breaking Athlete: ++SOUNDBITE PARTIALLY COVERED++ "Well, now girls can’t do anything. They cannot leave their homes, they cannot study, nothing. They threatened us, they put bombs near our club. We shut down that club but I sometimes trained at home. Until the Taliban came." ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVE: Kabul, Afghanistan - 7 June 2023 10. Various of Taliban at checkpoint ASSOCIATED PRESS Madrid, Spain - 11 June 2024 ++SOUNDBITE PARTIALLY COVERED++ 11. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Manizha Talash, Refugee Olympic Team, Breaking Athlete: "So, I’m here because I want to reach my dream. Not because I’m scared." STORYLINE: In the outskirts of Madrid, 21-year-old Manizha Talash is training hard for the Games, which for the first time will include breaking, or, as it's popularly known, breakdancing. With attitude, Talash prances and swivels on her hands and feet to the beat of hip-hop, swooshing her black and red hair around before striking a pose signaling the end of her performance. Just months ago, she was working in a hair salon in the town of Huesca. Talash was among hundreds of Afghans brought to Spain aboard military planes following the return of the Taliban to power in 2021. Talash first came across breaking at age 17. She saw a social media video of a man spinning on his head and was skeptical — it must have been fake, generated by AI, she thought. But the images were real, and she said she soon became obsessed with the sport, scrolling through video after video on her phone. “I wanted to do it, I wanted to learn it,” she said. She found a club in Kabul where a dancer from the videos trained and knocked at the door. “There were 55 boys, and I was the only girl,” she said. “I told myself, why can’t a girl do this?” The urban dance with roots in the Bronx in some ways freed her from the problems facing young women in Afghanistan. But it wasn’t long before Talash was noticed — international news outlets published stories about the young Afghan woman defying cultural and religious norms. That was enough to become a target. “The Taliban don’t like it when a girl dances,” she said, even though breaking is more than that — it's a sport. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives ​​ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/2afbf5d9d4634728947b5d8a278d6c40