In 2018, US-based leagues began to teach American football to women in Afghanistan. When the Taliban took control in 2021, the Afghan women's flag football team -- and their families who supported them -- came under attack. The Taliban considered women playing football not only to be immodest, but a direct violation of the norms and mores they wanted to enforce. The players' bodies were too exposed. The Taliban believed players should stay at home, fully covered.

Women on the national team want to play sports. Their families support them. The threats against them aren't theoretical and are real.

A transnational team of US and Mexican attorneys is working together to support the team and their family members, and the Mexican government is considering protection for the athletes and their families. Attorney Elba Gutiérrez Castillo published an article  about the team's plight in Nexos, a Mexican magazine.

But for this to happen, a multi-national group of supporters needs to come together to assure the Mexican government that these athletes and their families will not become a "burden on society" -- that they will have some source of funding to support them as they establish themselves in Mexico.

Generally, Mexico's Immigration agency has clear financial guidelines for foreigners who will reside in Mexico, requiring $2,500 USD per month for each head of household and $860 USD per month for each dependent. With nine families (nine heads of household and 68 total dependents), we estimate initial support may require $80,980 USD.

We seek to raise this amount (plus a small reserve and enough to cover GoFundMe's processing fees). 

All funds raised here will be transferred in their entirety to the International Women Flag Football Association, which will disburse funds to families directly.

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The organizer of this fundraiser is Julie Schwietert Collazo, co-founder and director of the non-profit, Immigrant Families Together  (IFT). Because IFT's bylaws do not permit the organization to raise funds for projects outside the United States, this fundraiser is set up separately and is not a project of IFT.