Paris Olympics 2024
Afghanistan’s first woman Olympic breakdancer: ‘I need my huge dream’
Defiant breaker Manizha Talash says her spot withinside the Games indicates the braveness of Afghan girls, that ‘ every body can reap their goals , even though they're in a cage’.
Manizha Talash
Manizha Talash poses for a media day image for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) [Courtesy of the IOC]
By Tamara Davison
Published On four Aug 2024
four Aug 2024
When Manizha Talash noticed a video of an Afghan breakdancer on social media in 2020, she didn’t agree with it at first. But that second ended up converting her life, unlocking new opportunities and goals for the 17-year- vintage residing in Kabul.
Three months later, Talash had summoned the braveness to go to the fitness center wherein the breakdancers, called the Superiors Crew, trained, hoping to analyze from the individual she had visible spinning on his head withinside the video. fifty five boys, and I turned into simplest a girl,” Talash explained. At first, she turned into hesitant to do whatever greater than watch the dancers, however as she were given to recognize the breaking network , her issues disappeared – and her willpower to pursue the game increased.
“In that fitness center , gender turned into now no longer important,” she recalled, speakme fondly of the Superiors Crew. “At college or in my family, they continually informed me, ‘You’re a girl. You can’t try this thing, or that sport, or that job,” she stated with a bit of luck in ideal Spanish, a language she found out after locating protection in Spain in 2021. “But inside that fitness center , they continually informed me, ‘You can do it. It isn't impossible. It is difficult, however it isn't impossible.’”
So she were given to work, studying energy movements in schooling and unlocking a much broader know-how of hip-hop culture, in addition to her vicinity inside this dynamic artwork form. She did this below the watchful eye of her first teach Jawad Sezdah — the very dancer she noticed withinside the on-line video that ignited her ardour withinside the first vicinity .
Four years later, she is now Afghanistan’s first “b-girl”, a time period to explain woman breakdancers. Sporting short, uneven hair and a streetwear style, her cool and accumulated manner belies the infinite hours of labor she installed to reap her goals .
Now 21, she’s making ready to compete withinside the Paris Olympic Games, crediting Kabul’s close-knit breakdancing network for assisting her get there.