BWhen Manizha Talash finished her breakdance routine at the Paris Olympics by wrapping herself in a cape with the slogan “Free Afghan Women,” she knew she would be disqualified. “I’ve been thinking about this for four months, ever since I knew I was going to the Olympics,” says 21-year-old Talash.

“I thought: I have a minute where the whole world is watching me, and I thought: what is more important, my dream, my life or the women of Afghanistan? I didn’t go there to win, I don’t care.”

The cloak was made from a burka, which is seen by many as the ultimate symbol of the oppression of Afghan women.

“Afghan women have no freedom of choice in their lives,” she posted on Instagram. “With the fabric of this burka, which represents so much, I want to show the girls at home that even in the most difficult circumstances, they have the power to change things. They can turn a burka into wings. If they are in a cocoon, they can fly one day.”

Because of her political protest, she was immediately disqualified.

“The Olympic authorities saw it as a political protest, but I didn’t, even though I knew it would happen,” she says. “I don’t see it as political, but as a favor to help the world by helping Afghan women.”

“Breakdown is a form of expression and that’s why I felt like I had to do it, even if it meant disqualification.”

When asked whether she thought it was hypocritical of the authorities to ban her from participating, given the large number of countries with poor human rights records that are allowed to participate, she simply replied: “Everyone has their own rules.”

Talash joined Kabul’s tiny breakdance scene at 18 and was the first and only female breakdancer when the capital fell to the Taliban in 2021. She and her fellow breakdancers fled to Pakistan before being evacuated on a Spanish military plane.

After working as a hairdresser in Huesca, Aragón, she moved to Madrid and was reunited with her family a few months later.

With the help of an American journalist and documentary filmmaker, she applied for a place on the Olympic refugee team and represented Spain in the first – and possibly last – time that breakdancing was an Olympic sport.

“In the refugee team, we were 37 people from different countries and spoke different languages. So it was not easy to make close friends, but we really felt like a team and everyone helped each other,” she says.

On the day of the competition, Talash said she was nervous because she was one of the best breakers in the world.

“Some of them have been breaking for over 20 years, since I was born, and they have participated in many competitions, while I have only participated in two,” she says.

“These are people I learned from by watching videos, so I was very happy to be among them. I was also afraid that the protest would not go well or that people would not see it.”

Not only was her gesture seen around the world, she says, it was also warmly received by the public and her fellow competitors. It was also an encouragement to women in Afghanistan who saw it on social media.

She regrets nothing and says the protest in Paris was not an isolated incident.

“I wouldn’t do the same, but I don’t just want to talk, I want to act, and if I can do something different, I will,” she says.

Talash now lives with her family near Madrid and hopes that the Olympic Refugee Foundation will continue to support her financially, as it does with all scholarship holders, and will not withdraw its support because of her disqualification.

She says of her future: “I will train more because breakdancing is my life. I also have a clothing line that hopefully people in Afghanistan can make at home. And I want to learn other sports and go to the games again.”