...sole woman competitor has had to prepare herself mentally for the biggest challenge of her life while dealing with sinister midnight telephone calls, the open derision of her neighbours and even police harassment.




Everyday there is a new heartbreak;
Misfortune constantly raising its stakes.

Andyar, an Olympic aspirant is gone missing;
Sole Afghan woman sprinter slated for Beijing.
Andyar, A rising spirit, a brave soul,
Pride of a nation, an archetypal role.
A robe-clad aspiring Olympic athlete,
Groomed in Kabul’s hostile streets,
Where men are killed for lesser things
She braved insults, threats and hecklings.
Practiced her runs in run down streets,
In darkness of nights to conceal her zeal.
The wrongs, the malice, the prejudice she braved,
Neighbour’s spite, policeman’s raids.
Jealousy, bigotry, inequity, insolence,
She faced threats for offence of innocence.
But followed her dream to go for the games,
And made a nation proud of her name.


Living in those squalid slums
Where even water does not run.
With scarf tightly wrapped over the head
And long robes worn as jumper dress
She followed the dream all the same
To be in Afghan Team in Beijing games.
And expectant eyes of the whole world
Followed her! Miss Mahboba Andyar!
And suddenly this shocking news we hear:
She is missing! She has disappeared!

“Where she has gone, and why?” I asked.
First I dreaded the dreadful thought:
A prey to an assassin’s heartless gun
Or abducted by those malicious ones?
But when I listened a little more to the news
The picture starts giving more likely clues.

It may be that every night and day
In her Italian little practicing place
When she looked at her Kabul-life days
Every insult she bore, every threat she faced
Came shooting at her with her every thought
Like an arrow that pierces but stays in heart
And cries of the loved-ones, mother’s moans
Could not make her to come back home.
Hell it was – hell it remains
If she runs away – can you blame?