By Brian Freeman From Newsmax

The Taliban beheaded an Afghan female volleyball national team player, Mahjabin Hakimi, her coach told the Persian Independent.

The murder actually took place earlier this month, but the coach said the incident remained mostly unknown because Hakimi’s family had been threatened not to speak about it, according to the New York Post.

The Payk Investigative Journalism Center confirmed the beheading in a tweet, saying the murder took place in Kabul, but that “except her family, no one knows the exact time of the incident.”

The coach, using a pseudonym, Suraya Afzali, out of concern for her safety, told the Persian Independent that she was publicizing the beheading in order to illustrate the grave risk that female sports players are facing since the Taliban took over Afghanistan.

Afzali added that only two of the women’s national volleyball team succeeded in fleeing the country in order to escape the Taliban.

“All the players of the volleyball team and the rest of the women athletes are in a bad situation and in despair and fear,” Afzali told the Persian Independent. “Everyone has been forced to flee and live in unknown places.”

The Persian Independent reported that Afghan social media published images of Hakimi’s severed neck.

Zahra Fayazi, one of the players who managed to escape, told the BBC last month from her new home in the United Kingdom that at least one of the players had been killed, adding that “we don’t want this to repeat for our other players.”

Fayazi explained that “many of our players who are from provinces were threatened many times by their relatives who are Taliban and Taliban followers,” adding that “the Taliban asked our players’ families to not allow their girls to do sport, otherwise they will be faced with unexpected violence.”

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