PARIS — Manizha Talash, perhaps the unlikeliest 2024 Olympian, skipped onstage at the inaugural Olympic breaking (breakdancing) competition with a defiant message that ran afoul of rules restricting demonstrations at the Games.
Talash, a 21-year-old Afghan refugee, punctuated her one and only battle at La Concorde by ripping off her black sweatshirt to reveal a blue cape with an all-caps message: “FREE AFGHAN WOMEN.”
She did not earn a single judge’s vote in her “pre-qualifier” round, and was eliminated with the loss to B-girl India from the Netherlands.
Nonetheless, official results later showed that she was disqualified. A World DanceSport Federation spokesperson, which governs breaking as an Olympic sport, said in a statement that Talash was “disqualified for displaying a political slogan on her attire.”
An International Olympic Committee spokesperson told Yahoo Sports in an email that Talash “was issued with a warning by the chair of the IOC disciplinary commission.”
The IOC did not provide further details, but the decision presumably fell in line with the controversial “Rule 50,” which states: “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympics sites, venues or other areas.”
Critics argue that the rule infringes on athletes’ right to express themselves. And many would argue that Talash was simply making a statement in support of human rights that Olympic organizers purportedly support.
But, in a “Guidelines on Athlete Expression” document published ahead of Paris 2024, the IOC writes that “the focus at the Olympic Games must remain on athletes’ performances, sport and the international unity and harmony that the Olympic Games seek to advance.”
The IOC guidelines direct Olympians to “express their views” in non-competition areas, such as venue-adjacent interview areas called “mixed zones.”
Talash, though, chose not elaborate on her message in interviews afterward. “What she did on stage I think is enough,” a translator and handler said while ushering her through the mixed zone at La Concorde.
Manizha Talash’s story
That she was even here, at the Paris Games, was remarkable. Talash, a few years ago, was one of millions of girls and women oppressed in Afghanistan, one of the most religiously conservative and repressive countries on Earth.
When she was 17, she has said, she found a Facebook video of an Afghan boy dancing. She soon became entranced by breaking, which had developed as a niche pursuit among teens and men in Kabul. She sought out a local group, “Superiors Crew.” And she shattered all sorts of cultural norms and rules.
This was before the Taliban returned to power. But even then, art and creative expression were tightly restricted in Afghanistan — no matter the gender of the performer. That she was a girl made her involvement in breaking doubly taboo.
“It was very difficult because, one, dancing is illegal, period, in Afghanistan,” Talash explained to NBC. “But also, it’s very looked down upon for girls to engage in any kind of sporting activities. So I got a lot of judgment from people in my neighborhood, even from my extended family members. It was definitely a risk.”
At her club, where she was the only girl among 55 boys, she has said, she received death threats. A bomb exploded nearby. A separate bombing attempt was foiled. The Superiors Crew was forced to shut down the club. They, and Kabul’s small hip-hop community more broadly, had to move further and further underground.
Then, when the Taliban returned to power, they had to flee. Talash and a younger brother said frantic goodbyes to family, piled into a car and escaped to Pakistan, crossing the border illegally.
She eventually followed a friend to Spain, as a passport-less refugee.
And that’s where she continued dancing.
She has said that she did not flee because she was afraid, but rather because she wanted to pursue her passion. She had nowhere near the resources nor experience to pursue it on the Olympic stage. But the IOC caught wind of Talash’s story and invited her to the Olympic Refugee Team, a group of a few dozen athletes who have fled their native countries and need the IOC’s support — because they don’t have support from a national Olympic committee.
Talash’s demonstration
Talash arrived in Paris as the 17th participant in what was originally set to be a 16-woman breakdancing competition. She was given a shot to battle B-girl India in breaking’s equivalent of a play-in game. And even to novice observers, she was clearly outclassed. India received all 27 votes from judges over the three-round battle.
Talash, however, had a bigger story to tell and a message to send.
She opened the competition in an all-black outfit and red bandana. After one round, she shed the bandana to reveal her medium-length black hair — a move that would’ve run afoul of the Taliban’s so-called morality police back home in Kabul.
Then, at the start of the third round, she ditched her Olympic Refugee Team sweatshirt to reveal a black shirt with lettering in her native language on the front and the cape with “FREE AFGHAN WOMEN” on the back.
Fans applauded. India, her opponent, applauded too.
Of all the Olympic sports, breaking is perhaps the most tolerant (and encouraging) of personal expression. But there has long been friction between the worldwide community of breakers and the WDSF, the sport’s governing body, which was originally founded as a ballroom dancing organization.
Its unclear whether the WDSF — whose spokesman did not immediately respond to emailed questions — or the IOC made the decision to sanction Talash.
The IOC has welcomed a largely symbolic Afghan Olympic team of three men and three women to Paris. It has tried to delicately manage its relationship with Afghan sporting officials in recent years, and engaged in “continuous dialogue … with the aim to reverse the current restrictions on access to sport for women and young girls in Afghanistan,” an IOC official said earlier this year.
The official, James Macleod, said that Afghan sports authorities had “sent us a number of elements that they are working on within Afghanistan to try and allow access for women and young girls to sport. We’re not impressed with what they’re sending us, let’s be honest. It’s not making for good reading.”
Source Agencies
