“We have your location. We will share it for the highest bidder,” one wrote to her.

“I will cut your head off.”

“Where do you want me to rape you?” another message read.

More than 5,000 calls and messages bombarded Marzieh Hamidi’s phone in the days after the Afghan Taekwondo champion dared to suggest that her home country’s men’s cricket team didn’t represent her – an athlete forced into exile by the Taliban’s ban on women’s sport.

“Taekwondo gives me more identity as a woman,” she told CNN, “to feel more powerful in society.”

Hounded by death threats in Paris, where the 21-year-old refugee now lives under police protection, Hamidi has become a champion for equal rights for Afghan women. It’s a campaign waged disproportionately by the country’s female athletes.

“In Afghanistan, women are not allowed to be women,” she added. “They do not exist.”

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