Zakia Khudadadi, who was poised to become Afghanistan's first female Paralympic athlete, has released a video pleading for help in reaching the Tokyo Games from the Afghan capital of Kabul after the Taliban captured the city.
Khudadadi, a 23-year-old from Herat, who competes in para-taekwondo, said she is now "imprisoned inside the house," with relatives in Kabul, where the airport has been a scene of utter chaos as Afghans seek to flee the country.
The Taliban, which imposed a brutal rule that included severe restrictions on women in the late 1990s, vowed Tuesday through a spokesman to allow women to participate in government.
"I cannot even go outside this house with confidence and with security to go out to buy a few things for myself or to train," said Khudadadi, who had been scheduled to arrive in Tokyo on Tuesday, a week before the start of the Paralympics.
"I am an Afghan woman, and as a representative of Afghan women, I ask you to help me. My intention is to participate in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. Please hold my hand and help me."
Khudadadi, who was born without a fully functional right arm, was inspired to take up taekwondo by Rohullah Nikpai, whose bronze medals in the sport in 2008 and 2012 are Afghanistan's only Olympic medals.