Browse content similar to 25/07/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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OK, one, two, three, go! Zubair's kite and that view, we can only be | :00:58. | :01:08. | |
:01:08. | :01:09. | ||
in Kabul. Welcome to World Olympic Dreams from Afghanistan. Coming up | :01:09. | :01:14. | |
in this programme - the quest of this country's only Olympic | :01:14. | :01:24. | |
:01:24. | :01:24. | ||
medallist to redefine Afghanistan. You can feel the power just coming | :01:24. | :01:33. | |
right up through here. It's just amazing. The incredible story of | :01:34. | :01:41. | |
double amputee Malik hoe Hamed -- Mohammed and the sport that changed | :01:41. | :01:47. | |
his life. 20 years of rowing, my legs are about that big. Check out | :01:47. | :01:55. | |
this - fi fingers don't meet. Plus, the athletes -- my fingers don't | :01:55. | :02:01. | |
meet. Plus, the athletes risking their lives for sport, the Afghan | :02:01. | :02:04. | |
women's team who play on in the face of death threats. This is | :02:04. | :02:09. | |
Afghanistan as you've never seen it before. Through the stories of | :02:09. | :02:19. | |
:02:19. | :02:47. | ||
athletes who want to change how For as long as I can remember, the | :02:47. | :02:51. | |
very word Afghanistan conjures up images of conflict and warfare, but | :02:51. | :02:57. | |
I've been really keen to come here and especially to Kabul, to see for | :02:57. | :03:01. | |
myself if somewhere among all this there might be some sport. And the | :03:01. | :03:07. | |
most obvious place to start is with one man, who almost single handedly | :03:07. | :03:17. | |
:03:17. | :03:17. | ||
has transformed the very idea of the Afghan athlete. Taekwondo | :03:17. | :03:22. | |
fighter, Rohullah Nikpai is without equal in Afghanistan. He is the | :03:23. | :03:29. | |
only Olympic medallist in the history of this country. His bronze | :03:29. | :03:33. | |
in the Beijing Olympics was a moment of national celebration, the | :03:33. | :03:43. | |
like of which Afghanistan has all too few of. I'm on my way to meet | :03:43. | :03:47. | |
him with my guide in Afghanistan, journalist and broadcaster, Tahir | :03:47. | :03:55. | |
Qadiry. How big a star is Rohullah Nikpai? He's a really big star and | :03:55. | :03:58. | |
champion in Afghanistan, because the thing is, the reason is, we | :03:58. | :04:02. | |
haven't got a lot of champions over the last three decades because of | :04:02. | :04:06. | |
war and he on the other hand, was the first to bring the Olympic | :04:06. | :04:12. | |
medal to Afghanistan in our history and it was the first-ever medal and | :04:12. | :04:18. | |
there is so much publicity on TV. He's doing ads for some of these | :04:18. | :04:21. | |
telecommunications companies and for safety and sanitary in the | :04:21. | :04:24. | |
country and the people mob him on the street and everybody knows him, | :04:24. | :04:33. | |
from children to elders, because he has been so much on TV. It's become | :04:33. | :04:37. | |
a cliche when Olympic athletes say winning a medal changes their lives, | :04:37. | :04:41. | |
but it was literally true for Rohullah Nikpai. He had a huge | :04:41. | :04:46. | |
reception, a new car and this fantastic new apartment from the | :04:46. | :04:52. | |
prds of Afghanistan no less. President of Afghanistan no less. | :04:52. | :04:57. | |
Welcome. His quality of life was transformed by Beijing, but for him | :04:57. | :05:00. | |
the medals he holds dear are worth so much more than the personal | :05:00. | :05:10. | |
:05:10. | :05:30. | ||
wealth they have brought him. Winning medals is becoming a habit | :05:30. | :05:37. | |
for him. Last year, in the tae kwon do world championships in Korea he | :05:37. | :05:41. | |
consolidated his position as one of the best in his sport, with another | :05:41. | :05:47. | |
bronze medal. Proving he's -- his 2008 Olympic bronze wasn't just a | :05:47. | :05:57. | |
:05:57. | :06:17. | ||
Nearly four years on from that medal me formance in Beijing and | :06:17. | :06:21. | |
Rohullah still uses this gym and it's the place where he started out | :06:21. | :06:25. | |
on the outskirts of Kabul. It's a domestic house that's been | :06:25. | :06:32. | |
converted and you can see it's not even the correct width for a proper | :06:32. | :06:40. | |
taekwondo mat. For sure, Rohullah will fight plenty of athletes in | :06:40. | :06:45. | |
London with better training facilities than these. But from | :06:45. | :06:51. | |
what I saw his competitors would be foolish to underestimate the man | :06:51. | :06:57. | |
from Kabul. Force and power. I can feel the power just coming right up | :06:57. | :07:04. | |
through here and the most worrying thing is you can't even - from the | :07:04. | :07:11. | |
moment his foot leaves the floor, you can't see it. Thank you. An | :07:11. | :07:16. | |
Olympic medal is always a turning point for any athlete. It's the | :07:16. | :07:22. | |
moment when years of hard work in private in places like this, become | :07:22. | :07:30. | |
a matter of mass pride and of public celebration. That's more | :07:30. | :07:36. | |
true of Rohullah than many Olympic athletes. For him, the private and | :07:36. | :07:44. | |
the public are the same thing. He believes that if he fights hard | :07:44. | :07:54. | |
:07:54. | :07:55. | ||
enough as an individual his country might just be the better for it too. | :07:55. | :08:00. | |
One of the many remarkable things about Kabul is how normal things | :08:00. | :08:06. | |
here seem. At times you forget there's a war on. Like anywhere | :08:06. | :08:14. | |
else, many Afghans have jobs to do, people to meet, lives to live. But | :08:14. | :08:18. | |
equally, this being Afghanistan, there are reminders of this | :08:18. | :08:24. | |
country's recent past around every corner. Of all the weird sights, | :08:24. | :08:28. | |
this place is probably the pinnical. On a windy hill top right in the | :08:28. | :08:34. | |
middle of the city is almost an Olympic-sized swimming pool. It's a | :08:34. | :08:37. | |
quarter full and perched on the end is this diving platform. It's been | :08:37. | :08:42. | |
here for years and the truth is that the Taliban would bring their | :08:42. | :08:46. | |
victims here, march them up on to the board and either shoot them | :08:46. | :08:49. | |
there, or from the end of the pool and the bodies would fall into that | :08:50. | :08:58. | |
water. Hundreds of them apparently. It's really grim. Afghanistan still | :08:58. | :09:04. | |
has a long way to go before swimming pools represent sport, | :09:04. | :09:08. | |
rather than conjuring up dark memories. This empty, unused pool | :09:08. | :09:18. | |
:09:18. | :09:22. | ||
is a depressing sign of that. But there are glimmers of hope too. | :09:22. | :09:29. | |
Meet the Afghanistan water polo team. The squad made up of farmers, | :09:30. | :09:34. | |
shopkeepers and soldiers is the brainchild of a US marine who is | :09:34. | :09:39. | |
hoping they can qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games. It's a tall | :09:39. | :09:48. | |
order, though. This is what they are up against. This is one of only | :09:48. | :09:52. | |
about a dozen swimming pools in the whole of Afghanistan. It's outside | :09:52. | :09:55. | |
though and in winter it's completely unusable and sport | :09:55. | :10:00. | |
politics being what it is, the swimmers train here. The water polo | :10:00. | :10:04. | |
players have to find somewhere else. When I catch up with them they're | :10:05. | :10:10. | |
training in an indoor pool as the guests of a local businessman. It's | :10:10. | :10:14. | |
a one-off, organised, we think, because we are filming. It's not | :10:14. | :10:20. | |
going according to plan. A couple of problems. There are no goals | :10:20. | :10:23. | |
that I can see and a bit of confusion down the other end, | :10:23. | :10:27. | |
because there's no water poll low ball, so someone has been sent to | :10:27. | :10:31. | |
buy one and hopefully we'll have some sport to watch in a minute or | :10:31. | :10:36. | |
two. Eventually a ball, albeit a football, turns up and training can | :10:36. | :10:43. | |
get under way. As sporting struggles go, it would take a lot | :10:43. | :10:49. | |
to beat the Afghan water polo team. There is no tradition of aquatic | :10:49. | :10:53. | |
sports in this land-locked country. Three of the team have been killed | :10:53. | :10:58. | |
in the war and the plan for a month's training in America is | :10:58. | :11:08. | |
:11:08. | :11:43. | ||
being blocked because of fears that You can't help feeling it will be | :11:43. | :11:48. | |
well beyond 2016 before these players have a hope of holding | :11:48. | :11:55. | |
their own internationally. Even so, Rohullah Nikpai's Olympic medal in | :11:55. | :12:01. | |
2008 is proof enough to these players that it can be done. In | :12:01. | :12:06. | |
Afghanistan perhaps more than anywhere else in the world, | :12:06. | :12:16. | |
:12:16. | :12:16. | ||
sporting dreams survive against overwhelming odds. The emergence of | :12:16. | :12:19. | |
waterpolo and other fledgling sports here reveals wider truths | :12:20. | :12:24. | |
about the struggle going on in Afghanistan. As a whole. Something | :12:24. | :12:30. | |
I'm keen to know more about from Tahir Qadiry. Just tell me what | :12:30. | :12:33. | |
sport means in Afghanistan at the moment. Well, sport means quite a | :12:33. | :12:38. | |
lot after the fall of the Taliban. The two great achievements | :12:38. | :12:43. | |
Afghanistan has, one was the freedom in press and then sport. | :12:43. | :12:47. | |
You saw an explosion of sports in Afghanistan and athletes coming | :12:48. | :12:51. | |
from the middle of nowhere really, like the cricket for example. | :12:51. | :12:56. | |
That's a great example. They came out of the ashes and then they | :12:56. | :13:01. | |
became like a global phenomenon. These athletes with very little | :13:01. | :13:06. | |
facilities, they try to express themselves and express their | :13:06. | :13:11. | |
identities through a different way. And to introduce a new image from | :13:11. | :13:14. | |
Afghanistan, other than the usual one, which is always associated | :13:14. | :13:21. | |
with war and drugs. Redefining what it means to be not just an Afghan, | :13:21. | :13:29. | |
but an Afghan athlete is also what is driving 18 -year-old Malik | :13:29. | :13:39. | |
Mohammed. I lost my legs by a landmine. The bomb was from the | :13:39. | :13:49. | |
:13:49. | :13:50. | ||
Russian people. It was a minefield. I lost both of my legs and there | :13:50. | :13:55. | |
were two bombs. I came down and another one went off. Two in a row? | :13:55. | :14:05. | |
Yes. Those two bombs planted before he was even born changed Malik's | :14:05. | :14:08. | |
life unmathably. After injury and horror, came the realisation that | :14:08. | :14:14. | |
he was now part of a kind of underclass. In Afghanistan the | :14:14. | :14:23. | |
disabled are all too often regarded as invisible, or even worthless. | :14:23. | :14:27. | |
have one million disabled or paralysed like me in Afghanistan. | :14:27. | :14:33. | |
They are very poor families. They cannot do work or do anything in | :14:33. | :14:39. | |
Kabul city or wherever they are, so this is a big problem between | :14:39. | :14:45. | |
disabled and not. He was flown to the US for treatment. Several years | :14:45. | :14:49. | |
not just of American medical care, but also of education changed his | :14:49. | :14:55. | |
life again. He met former Presidents, made new friends and | :14:55. | :15:01. | |
discovered sport. He returned to Kabul not just as a track athlete, | :15:01. | :15:06. | |
but also as a swimmer, with a sense of self-worth, which might | :15:06. | :15:12. | |
otherwise have alluded him. What would your life be like without | :15:12. | :15:19. | |
sport? If I didn't do sport I would be a simple person and I would stay | :15:19. | :15:24. | |
at home and do nothing and watch only TV, so now I'm a sportsmen and | :15:24. | :15:34. | |
people call me an athlete and hero, It's amazing what sport can do for | :15:34. | :15:37. | |
people in Afghanistan in the days and months after Malik lost his | :15:37. | :15:43. | |
legs, the chances were he was going to become almost a pariah in Afghan | :15:43. | :15:50. | |
society. Now he's a hero for the whole country. This summer in | :15:50. | :15:56. | |
London, Malik hopes to represent Afghanistan in the 2012 Paralympic | :15:56. | :16:01. | |
Games. He'll be banishing some personal demons for sure. But if he | :16:01. | :16:05. | |
can change what it means to have a disability here, then perhaps the | :16:05. | :16:14. | |
biggest impact from his efforts in London will be felt back at home. | :16:14. | :16:20. | |
There are so many sporting stories to be told in Afghanistan. The lid | :16:20. | :16:26. | |
has been lifted here. Afghans are throwing themselves into all kinds | :16:26. | :16:32. | |
of sports. Not all the trends here are new though. There is one craze | :16:32. | :16:37. | |
in particular which, like cricket, went on during the Taliban but is | :16:37. | :16:41. | |
now booming like never before. Tell me about bodybuilding? Why is | :16:41. | :16:45. | |
that such a big sport in Afghanistan? Well, maybe you are | :16:45. | :16:48. | |
not to right person because I haven't got good muscles, but I | :16:48. | :16:51. | |
will answer you. You know, bodybuilding after the fall of the | :16:51. | :16:57. | |
Taliban, it's one of the favourite sports in Afghanistan like, I mean, | :16:57. | :17:01. | |
every Afghan, especially the youngsters you speak to, they go to | :17:01. | :17:05. | |
the gym. It's not a new thing? This hasn't happened in the last two or | :17:05. | :17:09. | |
three years, it's been generations? Yes, it's been going on for years | :17:09. | :17:12. | |
and years, even during the Taliban. They were asked to wear pants and | :17:12. | :17:16. | |
cover your legs and also some parts of your chest as well. But after | :17:17. | :17:21. | |
the Taliban, now they can show each part of the body. Let me tell you | :17:21. | :17:25. | |
one thing. When you go and propose a girl, one of the criterias is | :17:25. | :17:28. | |
having a good body in Afghanistan so you need to have a good muscle | :17:29. | :17:34. | |
to propose a good girl. To get a good woman? Xabgtsly. | :17:34. | :17:39. | |
-- exactly. If that's true, then these guys should have no trouble | :17:39. | :17:49. | |
:17:49. | :17:54. | ||
This is lunch time in Kabul in one of many weightlifting gyms and | :17:54. | :17:58. | |
these bodybuilders have put on a show specifically for us, it has to | :17:58. | :18:01. | |
be said. I've been in plenty of gyms in my life, but I've never | :18:02. | :18:07. | |
seen anything like this. This gym is brand-new. It brings | :18:07. | :18:12. | |
the number in Kabul alone to around 200. The sport, if you can call it | :18:12. | :18:17. | |
that, isn't just about spending hours in gyms though. | :18:17. | :18:22. | |
All of these bodybuilders regularly compete in contests that take place | :18:22. | :18:28. | |
right across the country, culminating every year in the Mr | :18:29. | :18:31. | |
Afghanistan competition. Contestants are scored on different | :18:31. | :18:36. | |
parts of the body so knowing how to flex on demand is crucial. | :18:36. | :18:42. | |
So check this out, 20 years of rowing, my legs are, oh, about that | :18:42. | :18:49. | |
big. Check out this. Bicep. My fingers don't meet! Jabar Hotak | :18:49. | :18:57. | |
could have been the next Rohullah Nikpai. His first sport was tae | :18:57. | :19:01. | |
kwon do. Before too long, bodybuilding became his obsession | :19:01. | :19:05. | |
though. It's a passion which climaxed with him being crowned | :19:05. | :19:09. | |
many Afghanistan in 2009. Now, as a trainer, he's uniquely placed to | :19:09. | :19:19. | |
:19:19. | :19:35. | ||
Where there are prizes, of course there is cheating. | :19:35. | :19:39. | |
Notably steroids. These bodybuilders all say they | :19:39. | :19:43. | |
rely on weight lifting alone to build up their muscle, but they | :19:43. | :19:47. | |
know plenty of people here willing to turn to chemicals to gain an | :19:47. | :19:50. | |
advantage. So why is this place called the | :19:50. | :19:54. | |
Bush Bazaar? Well, after the former President of the United States... | :19:54. | :19:58. | |
Tahir brought me to a market where steroids are for sale. When the | :19:58. | :20:01. | |
Taliban fell from power, people started setting up markets like | :20:01. | :20:06. | |
this one because most of you can find most of the American stuff | :20:06. | :20:09. | |
here where the soldiers don't consume them, then they bring them | :20:09. | :20:14. | |
here and preem just try to buy. we have obviously seen the | :20:14. | :20:17. | |
bodybuilders within they are looking for the supplements or | :20:17. | :20:21. | |
steroids, is this the right place to come? You have come to the right | :20:21. | :20:28. | |
place. Here you can get everything! Steroids, weight gainer. Is this | :20:28. | :20:32. | |
something people are worried about? The thing is, there is not so much | :20:32. | :20:37. | |
knowledge about this, not so much publicity. The recent report I | :20:37. | :20:41. | |
heard was a friend who died of using too much steroids, so that | :20:41. | :20:46. | |
was like a Big Bang, like that was a warning for all people. Doping is | :20:46. | :20:52. | |
certainly a very worrying part of this sport. Testing is still only | :20:52. | :20:56. | |
sporadic and while there remains a real chance of not being caught, | :20:56. | :21:01. | |
plenty of bodybuilders will continue to use. | :21:01. | :21:06. | |
There is more freedom than ever in sport in Afghanistan, but there are | :21:06. | :21:12. | |
many who'd argue in the world of bodybuilding at least, freedom to | :21:12. | :21:17. | |
participate and freedom to abuse should not be confused. | :21:17. | :21:22. | |
You are never too far from signs of conflict in Kabul. This was the gym | :21:22. | :21:26. | |
where we were just filming those bodybuilders and right next door, | :21:26. | :21:29. | |
that tall building is where the Taliban launched an attack from a | :21:30. | :21:34. | |
few months ago. That was on to the American Embassy a couple of blocks | :21:34. | :21:37. | |
that way. You can still see the bullet holes in the top of that | :21:37. | :21:40. | |
building where the Americans fired back. | :21:40. | :21:46. | |
Kabul is one of the most dangerous cities in the world. As a result, | :21:46. | :21:50. | |
moving around, you come across checkpoints every few hundred | :21:50. | :21:55. | |
metres. Stop check. Understandably, they | :21:55. | :22:03. | |
don't like being filmed. In Kabul, you're constantly aware | :22:03. | :22:07. | |
how dangerous things can be here. But equally, life in a high | :22:07. | :22:12. | |
security world can also become very normal very quickly. | :22:12. | :22:16. | |
We have been here two or three days, and you just get used to it. It's | :22:16. | :22:21. | |
worrying how you get used to it. You think to begin with, it's | :22:21. | :22:24. | |
completely a culture shock and now it's just normal. Armed guard, guy | :22:24. | :22:29. | |
comes to the window, say what you are doing, and then you can carry | :22:29. | :22:35. | |
on with life. Even though my main focus in | :22:35. | :22:38. | |
Afghanistan has been sport, you're constantly hit with the evidence of | :22:38. | :22:43. | |
the political side of this country's recent past. | :22:44. | :22:48. | |
This is the Ghazi Stadium. If you have seen pictures of this before, | :22:48. | :22:51. | |
they're unlikely to have been pleasant ones. It's here the | :22:51. | :22:54. | |
Taliban used to bring people in to execute them in front of the crowds | :22:54. | :22:59. | |
and even stone women to death. They stoned them to death out on | :22:59. | :23:04. | |
the pitch. Nowadays, there's progress, a lovely new Astro Turf | :23:04. | :23:09. | |
pitch and it's the hub of a whole sports complex which aims at | :23:09. | :23:15. | |
improving Afghan team sports. Among them, the Afghanistan women's | :23:15. | :23:20. | |
football team. Women's sport wasn't just | :23:20. | :23:28. | |
restricted under the Taliban, it was come plaitly banned. | :23:28. | :23:34. | |
The contrast between the present day and a mere 11 years ago is at | :23:34. | :23:39. | |
its starkest here. As recently as 2001, any of these | :23:39. | :23:44. | |
women could have been executed for what we are filming them doing | :23:44. | :23:49. | |
today. That's not to say that this is | :23:49. | :23:53. | |
uncontroversial even now. The role of women in Afghanistan is a battle | :23:54. | :23:58. | |
that is far from settled. Many of the players here have had | :23:58. | :24:03. | |
death threats. Each of the women on this pitch has their own story of | :24:03. | :24:13. | |
:24:13. | :24:34. | ||
sacrifice to tell for the love of This is where progress in sport is | :24:34. | :24:40. | |
at its most delicate. Women's sport happens in Afghanistan, you could | :24:40. | :24:45. | |
say despite public attitudes, not because of them. | :24:45. | :24:50. | |
Even so, Sajir and the rest of her team-mates remain committed. The | :24:50. | :24:54. | |
team is beginning to play internationals overseas and home | :24:54. | :25:04. | |
:25:04. | :25:32. | ||
matches have drawn surprising What happens with the women's | :25:32. | :25:36. | |
football team more than any of the other athletes I've encountered | :25:36. | :25:40. | |
will be a barometer of the biggest story here in Afghanistan. | :25:40. | :25:47. | |
In five or ten years' time, this team may well in longer exist, or | :25:47. | :25:53. | |
it may be if Sajia has anything to do with it, the Afghan women's | :25:53. | :26:03. | |
:26:03. | :26:04. | ||
football team has gone from To round off our trip, you couldn't | :26:04. | :26:06. | |
get a more Afghan backdrop than the presidential palace which was | :26:06. | :26:11. | |
ruined in the fighting in the Civil War. But you never know with | :26:11. | :26:16. | |
Afghanistan. You could come back in six months' time and that could be | :26:16. | :26:19. | |
completely razed to the ground or reinvented as a Government building | :26:19. | :26:23. | |
or even some sort of luxury hotel, you just don't know. And when I | :26:23. | :26:26. | |
think back to the few days, it's been absolutely amazing to get | :26:26. | :26:32. | |
under the skin of the place and to really witness the truth about | :26:32. | :26:36. | |
Afghan sports. You think of Malik and Rahullah who're absolutely at | :26:36. | :26:39. | |
the cutting edge, they're an inspiration to the whole nation and | :26:39. | :26:44. | |
to generations of people coming up behind them and realising that it's | :26:44. | :26:48. | |
possible to go to the Olympics or Paralympics and win medals. Then | :26:48. | :26:52. | |
you think of the more rough and ready reality of Afghan sport, the | :26:52. | :26:58. | |
cricket that goes on in the streets and in the towns and then, you know, | :26:58. | :27:04. | |
the chaos of the Afghan Water Polo team. The only sign-off I think is | :27:04. | :27:07. | |
that there can be no definitives. You can't look at the country or | :27:07. | :27:11. | |
Kabul as a city or the political situation or indeed Afghan sport | :27:11. | :27:18. |