Nationality Afghan Occupation Judoka Fighting out of Afghanistan Residence Kabul, Afghanistan | Style Judo Role Athlete Division Middle Weight Name Fariba Rezayee | |
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Born Fariba September 3, 1985 (age 38) Kabul, Afghanistan ( 1985-09-03 ) | ||
Fariba Rezayee (Persian: فریبا رضایی) (born September 3, 1985) is an Afghan judoka, who is perhaps best known as one of the first two women athletes from Afghanistan to compete in the Summer Olympics. The Taliban controlling most of Afghanistan, caused the country to be banned from the Olympics in 1999 due to its discrimination against women under Taliban rule as well as its prohibition of sports of any kind, and thus missed out on the Sydney Olympics of the year 2000. In June 2003, the IOC lifted the suspension imposed on Afghanistan during the 115th IOC Session in Prague, and the country sent a delegation of five competitors to the Athens Games in 2004. Razayee and Robina Muqimyar were two women contingents in the delegation, becoming the first ever women to compete for Afghanistan at the Olympics.
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Personal life
Razayee was nine years old when her family moved from Afghanistan to the neighbouring country of Pakistan, after the Taliban seized control in 1996. Razayee, along with her family, lived in Pakistan for eight years as a refugee, and studied martial arts and boxing there.
After her return with her family to Afghanistan in 2002, she moved in boxing and was the first Afghan female boxer. But due to lack of other female boxers in her team, she then moved into judo, and began training for the Olympic Games at a girls judo club sponsored by Danish Refugee Council. Friba is the younger sister of Shaima Rezayee, a music TV presenter who was killed in 2005 in her hometown Kabul. She also has two older brothers, Javed and Fawad.
2004 Athens Olympics
Razayee represented Afghanistan in the middleweight class (70 kg) event of judo in the 2004 Summer Olympics, Athens. The whole competition took place on August 18. In her first round match, Razayee faced Spaniard Cecilia Blanco and lost the bout without earning a single point.