Safe in Spain, Afghan Women's Basketball Star Hopes to Play Again

 BILBAO, SPAIN - As the captain of Afghanistan's wheelchair basketball team and a women's rights activist, Nilofar Bayat fled when the Taliban took over, seeking safety in Spain where she hopes to soon be back on the court.  

Speaking to reporters in the northern city of Bilbao days after arriving on a Spanish military plane, this 28-year-old athlete spoke of her shock at how quickly the Taliban swept into the capital Kabul and of her struggle to get out.   "I really want the U.N. and all countries to help Afghanistan … because the Taliban are the same as they were 20 years ago," she said. "If you see Afghanistan now, it's all men, there are no women because they don't accept woman as part of society."  After a nerve-wracking escape, she and her husband, Ramesh, who plays for Afghanistan's national basketball team, landed Friday at an airbase outside Madrid and are now starting a new life in Bilbao.