The fight for an Afghanistan women's team isn't only about soccer to its advocates

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — For former player and activist Khalida Popal, the formal recognition of an Afghanistan women's refugee team on the international stage isn't just about soccer.

The FIFA Council agreed last week during a meeting in Vancouver to amend its rules to recognize the team after a long campaign by Popal, advocates and others, meaning it could someday qualify for the World Cup or the Olympics. It was a moment of celebration for Popal after years of fighting.

“It has always been about the identity, it has always been about the greater mission, beyond football. We are not skillful, the most skillful team in the world, if you see our ranking, our results, it’s never been only about football,” Popal told The Associated Press. “Of course, football is the love and joy that brings. We’ll never forget that, but it was more about who we are as the identity, the women of Afghanistan."

Popal was one of the founding members in 2007 of the Afghanistan national team, which fought for acceptance before the Taliban's rise to power led to a prohibition on women playing sports. She was later instrumental in helping players flee the country in 2021 when Kabul fell.

Popal, the players who escaped and other advocates for the team subsequently mounted a campaign to revive the national team as a refugee team that would be eligible to compete for spots in international tournaments.

The victory for the team, which plays under the name Afghan Women United, also cleared the way for other teams that may face similar circumstances in the future.

“They have taken this great step to not only allow the women of Afghanistan to represent the country as a national team, but also they have changed and adapted the statues that no team in situations like us, that we have faced, will suffer the way we have suffered and sacrificed,” Popal said. "So this change is not only for Afghanistan and the future of the Afghan women, but is for the change for football globally.”

More than 80 Afghan refugee players are currently scattered across Australia, the United States and Europe. Two camps were recently held for the women, one in England and another in Australia.

The team, led by Scottish coach Pauline Hamill, is expected to play a pair of exhibitions during the upcoming June international window. The location and opponents for the matches hasn't been determined.

“I think that what this sort of says is that women can come together, and sport actually can be this vehicle or this conduit to change," FIFA chief football officer Jill Ellis said. “I think that’s why we’re working so hard within FIFA to get women’s football into every country, because we all recognize the benefits in society of having women that are strong and confident. But now to see it in such a major statement, I think it just reinforces that sport actually can not just bring people together, but create change and create opportunities, and rightly so, for those that either don’t have it or had it taken away from them.”

Popal served as captain of the national team in its early days, but she was forced to flee the country because of threats to her life and settled in Denmark.

She remained connected to the team and in 2018 helped expose sexual and physical abuse involving the women’s program. Keramuddin Keram, the federation president, was banned for life by FIFA amid allegations of sexual abuse.

In 2021, Popal was part of an international coalition, which included the global soccer players union FIFPRO, that helped some 75 people connected to the women's team escape the country amid harrowing circumstances.

The first move toward the refugee team's formal recognition came last October, when the Afghan refugees played in a tournament that included Chad, Libya and Tunisia in Morocco.

"This is about more than just football, it's about sending a message that no government should have the power to erase women from public life," said Andrea Florence, executive director of the Sport & Rights Alliance. "We are thrilled that FIFA has listened to Afghan women and addressed this gap in their statutes. We look forward to cheering them on for years to come.”

The elevation of the team drew applause from many of the delegates attending the FIFA Congress in Vancouver ahead of this summer's men's World Cup.

For Popal, whose life's work led to the refugee team's recognition, this is a moment of reflection and resolve.

“I’ll continue pushing and I’ll continue supporting. I will continue using my platform, my voice, to bring more awareness, because this is the time where the women of Afghanistan, inside Afghanistan, they have lost the attention from the Western world,” Popal said. “So football is our platform. It’s our channel, and we will continue to talk about their situation, and we will continue being their voice.”

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FILE - Members of Afghan Women United soccer team pose for a team photo before their match against Chad, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025, in Casablanca, Morocco, in their first international tournament since fleeing their country. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy, File)

FILE - Members of the Afghan women's national soccer team celebrate their goal against the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) female football team at the ISAF headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Oct. 29, 2010. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, File)

FILE - Members of Afghan Women United soccer team celebrate after scoring a goal against Chad, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025, in Casablanca, Morocco, in their first international tournament since fleeing their country. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy, File)

FILE - This Tuesday, March 8, 2016 file photo shows Khalida Popal, the former Afghanistan national women's team captain, in Copenhage, Denmark. (AP Photos/Jan M. Olsen, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is hanging just below its records Thursday as oil prices keep dropping on hopes that a deal may be nearing to allow tankers to deliver crude once again from the Persian Gulf to customers.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, fell 0.5% to $100.76, down from more than $115 early this week. It and gasoline are still much more expensive than they were before the war with Iran began, but hope is rising in financial markets as Iran said it was reviewing the latest U.S. proposals on ending their war.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 fell 0.3% from its all-time high set the day before after a spokesperson for Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said, “We expect an agreement sooner rather than later.” Pakistan has been acting as a mediator between the United States and Iran, and the hope is that they will reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Its closure during the war has kept oil tankers trapped in the Persian Gulf and sent prices higher for crude and all kinds of products.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 244 points, or 0.5%, as of 1:14 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.1% from its own record.

Of course, Wall Street has rallied strongly before on hopes for a coming end to the war with Iran, only to get quickly disappointed. That could happen again, and tensions are still high in the Middle East after a U.S. fighter jet shot out the rudder of an Iranian oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman Wednesday as it tried to breach the American blockade of Iran’s ports.

Despite all those uncertainties, a powerful parade of U.S. companies saying they made even bigger profits during the first three months of the year than analysts expected has helped support the U.S. stock market. Stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate profits over the long term.

Datadog leaped 25.7% to help lead the U.S. market after the monitoring and security platform for cloud applications topped analysts' expectations for profit in the latest quarter.

Albemarle rose 6.1% after the lithium products and specialty chemicals company likewise delivered better-than-expected results. Taser maker Axon Enterprise rallied 10.2% after raising its forecast for revenue this year in part because of big growth for its counter-drone products.

They helped offset a 12.5% drop for Whirlpool, which tumbled after reporting much weaker results than analysts expected. It announced the largest price increases in a decade for its major appliances in North America, while accelerating cuts to its costs, as it contends with weaker confidence among U.S. consumers.

Shake Shack dropped 28.4% after its results for the latest quarter fell well below analysts' expectations.

McDonald’s was mostly unchanged even though its revenue for the latest quarter edged past analysts’ expectations. CEO Chris Kempczinski said high gasoline prices and consumer anxiety over the Iran war could dent its sales this spring.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.38% from 4.36% late Wednesday, but remains down from 4.45% early this week.

Lower yields can bring down rates for mortgages and other kinds of loans going to U.S. households and businesses, which in turn can give the economy a boost. Lower yields also tend to push upward on prices for stocks and other kinds of investments.

The 10-year Treasury yield, though, remains well above its 3.97% level from just before the war.

Several reports on the U.S. economy also came in mixed. One said more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, but the increase was not as bad as economists expected. Another report suggested that productivity for U.S. workers improved by only half of what economists expected for the latest quarter.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell in Europe following a stronger finish in Asia.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 roared 5.6% higher as trading in Tokyo reopened following a holiday and caught up with big gains for Asian markets from earlier in the week. It’s at a record after soaring nearly 71% in the last 12 months on strength for tech stocks benefiting from the boom in artificial intelligence.

“I think it’s a kind of bubble because buying activity concentrated on leading AI, artificial intelligence stock and semiconductor-related stocks. It’s a situation where only semiconductor stocks are being bought,” said Takashi Hiroki, chief strategist at MONEX.

AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

Robert Finnerty, Jr., foreground right, works with colleagues on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, May 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Edward McCarthy, center, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, May 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

A display shows $20 for gasoline on a gas pump at a Mobil gas station on Wednesday, April 29, 2026, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

FILE - People pass the New York Stock Exchange on May 28, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

FILE - American flags fly outside the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, Sept. 23, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Thursday, May 7, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Thursday, May 7, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Thursday, May 7, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Trader Joseph Stevens, left, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, May 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)