Afghan basketball star makes debut in Spain after leaving Kabul

Afghan national women's wheelchair basketball team captain Nilofar Bayat wears a traditional Basque beret following her debut game for mixed-gender team Bidaideak against Fundacion Vital Zuzenak, in Amurrio, Spain, October 2, 2021. REUTERS/Vincent West

BILBAO (Reuters) - The captain of the Afghan women's wheelchair basketball team made her debut for her new Spanish side on Saturday to cheers and applause just over a month after fleeing Kabul when the Taliban came to power.

Nilofar Bayat, 28, and her husband Ramesh Naik Zai, 27, were offered the chance to play for Bidaideak Bilbao BSR, a wheelchair basketball team in the northern city of Bilbao.