Friba Rezayee ( prs, فریبا رضایی) (born September 3, 1985) is an

Afghan Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia *Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity ** Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...

judo is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo"). ...

ka, who is perhaps best known as one of the first two women athletes from Afghanistan to compete in the Summer Olympics. The Taliban controlling most of Afghanistan, caused the country to be banned from the Olympics in 1999 due to its discrimination against women under

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pasht ...

rule as well as its prohibition of sports of any kind, and thus missed out on the Sydney Olympics of the year 2000. In June 2003, the IOC lifted the suspension imposed on Afghanistan during the 115th IOC Session in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

, and the country sent a delegation of five competitors to the Athens Games in 2004. Rezayee and Robina Muqimyar were two women contingents in the delegation, becoming the first ever women to compete for Afghanistan at the Olympics.

Personal life

Rezayee was nine years old when her family moved from Afghanistan to the neighbouring country of

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

, after the Taliban seized control in 1996. Rezayee, along with her family, lived in Pakistan for eight years as a refugee, and studied martial arts and boxing there. After her return with her family to Afghanistan in 2002, she moved in

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...

and was the first Afghan female boxer. But due to lack of other female boxers in her team, she then moved into judo, and began training for the Olympic Games at a girls judo club sponsored by

Danish Refugee Council Danish Refugee Council (DRC) ( da, Dansk Flygtningehjælp) is a private Danish humanitarian nonprofit organization, founded in 1956. It serves as an umbrella organization for 33 member organizations. Formed after the Second World War in response ...

. Friba is the younger sister of Shaima Rezayee, a music TV presenter who was killed in 2005 in her hometown Kabul. She also has two older brothers, Javed and Fawad.

2004 Athens Olympics

Rezayee represented Afghanistan in the middleweight class (70 kg) event of

in the 2004 Summer Olympics,

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

. The whole competition took place on August 18. In her first round match, Rezayee faced

Spaniard Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex history, including a number of different languages, both i ...

Cecilia Blanco and lost the bout without earning a single point.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rezayee, Fariba Hazara sportspeople 1985 births Living people Afghan female judoka Judoka at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic judoka of Afghanistan Afghan expatriates in Pakistan People from Quetta Sportspeople from Kabul Afghan women boxers

Personal life

2004 Athens Olympics

See also

References