PARIS – Manizha Talash, arguably the most unlikely Olympian of 2024, hopped on stage at the first Olympic breakdancing competition and delivered a provocative message that violated rules banning demonstrations at the Games.
Talash, a 21-year-old Afghan refugee, underlined her only struggle at La Concorde by ripping off her black sweatshirt, revealing a blue cape with the message in capital letters: “FREE AFGHAN WOMEN.”
She did not receive a single vote from the jury in her “pre-qualification round” and was eliminated after losing to B-Girl India from the Netherlands.
However, official results later showed that she was disqualified. A spokesman for the World DanceSport Federation, which regulates breakdancing as an Olympic discipline, said in a statement that Talash was “disqualified for having a political slogan on her clothing.”
A spokesperson for the International Olympic Committee told Yahoo Sports in an email that Talash “received a warning from the Chairman of the IOC Disciplinary Commission.”
The IOC did not provide further details, but the decision is likely to be in line with the controversial “Rule 50”, which states: “Any form of demonstration or political, religious or racist propaganda is permitted in any Olympic site, venue or other area.”
Critics argue that the rule infringes on athletes’ right to freedom of expression. And many would argue that Talash was simply making a statement in support of the human rights that Olympic organizers claim to support.
But in a document published ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics entitled “Guidelines on Athletes’ Expression of Opinion,” the IOC writes: “The focus of the Olympic Games must continue to be on athlete performance, sport, and the international unity and harmony that the Olympic Games seek to promote.”
The IOC guidelines instruct Olympic participants to express their views in non-competition areas such as the so-called “mixed zones”, i.e. the interview areas adjacent to the event venue.
However, Talash avoided elaborating on her message in subsequent interviews. “I think what she did on stage is enough,” said a translator and coach as he led her through the mixed zone at La Concorde.
Manizha Talash’s story
The fact that she was here at all, at the Games in Paris, was remarkable. A few years ago, Talash was one of millions of oppressed girls and women in Afghanistan, one of the most religiously conservative and repressive countries in the world.
At 17, she says, she found a video of an Afghan boy dancing on Facebook. She soon became fascinated by breakdancing, which had become a niche activity among teenagers and men in Kabul. She sought out a local group, Superiors Crew, and shattered all sorts of cultural norms and rules.
This happened before the Taliban came back to power. But even then, art and creative expression were strictly forbidden in Afghanistan – regardless of the artist’s gender. The fact that she was a girl made her involvement in the breach doubly taboo.
“It was very difficult because, first of all, dancing is illegal in Afghanistan, period,” Talash told NBC. “But also there is a lot of disdain for girls to participate in any kind of sport. So I faced a lot of condemnation from people in my neighborhood and even from my extended family members. It was definitely a risk.”
She received death threats at her club, where she was the only girl among 55 guys. A bomb exploded nearby. Another bombing was foiled. The Superiors Crew was forced to close the club. She and Kabul’s small hip-hop community in general had to go ever deeper underground.
When the Taliban came back to power, they were forced to flee. Talash and a younger brother said a desperate goodbye to their family, got into a car and fled illegally across the border into Pakistan.
Eventually, as a refugee without a passport, she followed a friend to Spain.
And there she continued dancing.
She said she fled not out of fear but because she wanted to pursue her passion. She had neither the means nor the experience to pursue it on the Olympic stage. But the IOC got wind of Talash’s story and invited her to join the Olympic Refugee Team, a group of a few dozen athletes who have fled their home countries and need the IOC’s support – because they have no support from a national Olympic committee.
Talash’s demonstration
Talash arrived in Paris as the 17th competitor in a breakdancing competition originally planned for 16 women. She was given the chance to compete against B-Girl India in a breakdancing equivalent of a playoff. And even to inexperienced observers, she was clearly inferior. India received all 27 votes from the jury in the three-round battle.
However, Talash had a bigger story to tell and a message to convey.
She opened the competition in an all-black outfit and wearing a red bandana. After one round, she removed the bandana to reveal her medium-length black hair – a move that would have met with resistance from the Taliban’s so-called morality police in her hometown of Kabul.
Then, at the start of the third round, she took off her Olympic Refugee Team sweatshirt, revealing a black shirt with slogans in her native language on the front and a cape with the words “FREE AFGHAN WOMEN” on the back.
The fans applauded. Her opponent India also applauded.
Of all the Olympic sports, breakdancing is perhaps the most tolerant (and encouraging) of personal expression. But there has long been friction between the global breakdancing community and the WDSF, the sport’s governing body, which was originally founded as a ballroom dancing organization.
It is unclear whether the WDSF – whose spokesman did not immediately respond to questions sent by email – or the IOC made the decision to punish Talash.
The IOC welcomed a largely symbolic Afghan Olympic team of three men and three women in Paris. It has tried to manage its relations with Afghan sports officials carefully in recent years and has been in “continuous dialogue … with the aim of lifting the current restrictions on access to sport for women and young girls in Afghanistan,” an IOC official said earlier this year.
Official James Macleod said Afghan sports authorities had “sent us a number of elements that they are working on in Afghanistan to try to get women and young girls into sport. We are not impressed with what they are sending us, let’s be honest. It does not make for good reading.”
