(CNN) Nadia Nadim remembers the moment she fell in love with football.
She was in Denmark when she saw some girls kicking a ball around on a field, uninhibited.
"That's the first time I got to see that girls actually did play football at the schools. And right away, I fell in love with the game," the 33-year-old soccer star tells CNN's Becky Anderson.
"Since then, I've never really left the ball."
Across her prolific 16-year career, Nadim has earned success after success, having represented Denmark's women's football team since 2009.
She recently signed with NWSL club Racing Louisville FC in June on the back of a two year spell with Paris Saint-Germain -- where she contributed to the team's first ever league title, finally breaking Lyon's 14-year grip on the championship.
"We won the league for the first time in the club's history and it was amazing. Probably one of the biggest achievements. And then it was time for me to move on and try to find new challenges," she says.
But Nadim's glittering accomplishments are borne from strife.
When she was 11, her father was murdered by the Taliban, and so she was forced to evacuate her birth country of Afghanistan alongside her mother and four sisters.
They fled to Pakistan, before settling in a refugee camp in Denmark.
"My mom sold everything she had. We had found a human smuggler, brought us out to Pakistan. And from Pakistan, with fake passports, we were transported to first, Italy, and then kind of trucked to Denmark," Nadim says.
"I always say it's probably a bit of fate because the refugee camp that I was staying in in Denmark was just beside these amazing football fields and a football club."
READ: 'I was only thinking of staying alive': Nadia Nadim's journey from refugee camp to PSG star ... and back
Nadim in action during the match in the Spain and Denmark.
History repeating itself
Despite her harrowing journey, Nadim counts herself lucky that she was able to escape the Taliban's rule as a young girl.
"We were probably among the more fortunate ones," she says.
Images of the last US military planes leaving Afghanistan, and the Taliban subsequently taking over Kabul in August, have triggered "vivid memories" for Nadim.
"Before the Taliban, we had a great life, a safe environment. My mom and dad provided the best life for us possible," she says. "All that time was a life with a lot of fear and really just trying to survive."
As history repeats itself, she says she feels "sad" and "very confused."
"At the beginning, I wasn't really understanding what was happening. It felt like a deja vu. And I've never really thought that we will come back to this," she says.
"I couldn't understand it. And it was upsetting to see how they're gaining more power. And now that they're actually running the country.
"It makes me upset, makes me angry. I don't think they deserve it. I don't think that a terrorist group should have that much power."
Nadim attends the Education and Development G7 ministers Summit, at the UNESCO in Paris, France.
'It's so upsetting'
Nadim has recently seen her own story reflected back at her, in the journeys that many Afghan women athletes have undertaken by having to flee their own country, in order to find refuge elsewhere.
Ex-Afghanistan national women's football team assistant coach Haley Carter helped organize an emergency coalition with Khalida Popal, the team's former captain, to airlift 86 Afghan athletes, officials and family members out of the country to safety in August.
"I know the women's football national team, most of them got out," Nadim says of the operation. "I'm happy they did because if they [Taliban] found out that these girls were doing something that the Talibans are so much against, their life will be in danger."
In a similar turn of events, 41 Afghan evacuees, including 25 members of the Afghan girls' cycling team, arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Monday, where they are being processed before traveling to Canada -- a journey they made for fear of the treatment they may receive from the Taliban if they were to stay in the country.
The trepidation they feel from existing as women athletes in a Taliban-governed Afghanistan isn't misplaced.
Earlier this month, Ahmadullah Wasiq -- deputy head of the Taliban's cultural commission -- told Australia's SBS News that Afghan women should not play cricket and other sports in which they would be "exposed."
"In cricket, they might face a situation where their face and body will not be covered. Islam does not allow women to be seen like this," Wasiq said to SBS News.
"It doesn't harm anyone. You were just having fun. You're just enjoying yourself. You're actually trying to improve your health, trying to learn. Why is it a bad thing?," Nadim says when asked about the Taliban's stance on women playing sports.
"I don't understand it. It doesn't make any sense in my brain. And then that's that kind of people who have the power to run a country. What does that say about the country? And where does that leave the country's future? [...] It's so upsetting."
Afghanistan in crisis after Taliban takeover
Taliban fighters try to stop the advance of
female protesters marching through Kabul, Afghanistan, on Wednesday, September 8. It was a day after the Taliban announced an all-male interim government with no representation for women or ethnic minority groups.
Journalists from the Etilaatroz newspaper — video journalist Nemat Naqdi, left, and video editor Taqi Daryabi — undress to show wounds they sustained after Taliban fighters tortured and beat them while in custody. They had been arrested while reporting on a women's rights protest in Kabul on September 8.
US President Joe Biden
delivers a speech at the White House on August 31, defending the chaotic withdrawal from Kabul a day after the last American military planes left Afghanistan. The withdrawal concluded
the United States' longest war nearly 20 years after it began. "I was not going to extend this forever war, and I was not extending a forever exit," Biden said.
Taliban fighters sit in the cockpit of an Afghan Air Force aircraft that was left behind at the airport in Kabul on August 31.
Heavily armed Taliban fighters are seen at the airport in Kabul on August 31.
Afghan Air Force attack aircraft are pictured amid armored vests inside a hangar at the Kabul airport on August 31. Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said the US military had made "unusable all the gear that is at the airport -- all the aircraft, all the ground vehicles."
Taliban fighters storm the Kabul airport on August 31 after the US military completed its withdrawal.
US Army Maj. Gen. Chris Donahue, commanding general of the 82nd Airborne, boards a C-17 military transport plane to depart Kabul on August 31. He was the last US soldier to leave the country.
Celebratory gunfire lights up the sky after the last US aircraft left the Kabul airport.
Taliban fighters bow in prayer on August 31 after they secured the Kabul airport and inspected the equipment that was left behind.
Planes are seen on the tarmac at the Kabul airport late on August 30.
A C-17 military transport plane is a dot in the sky as it leaves Kabul on August 30.
A casket is brought to a grave site at a mass funeral in Kabul on August 30.
Ten members of one family — including seven children — were dead after a US drone strike targeted a vehicle in a residential neighborhood of Kabul, a relative of the dead told CNN. The United States carried out what it called a defensive airstrike in Kabul, targeting a suspected ISIS-K suicide bomber who posed an "imminent" threat to the airport, US Central Command said. The Pentagon has said the strike resulted in secondary explosions and that those explosions may have been what killed the civilians.
Samia Ahmadi, right, whose father and fiancé were both dead following the US drone strike, mourns her loved ones on August 30.
Members of the Badri 313 Battalion, a group of Taliban special forces fighters tasked with securing the area surrounding the Kabul airport, perform evening prayers on August 28.
Women weep at a mosque in Kabul on August 27 as they view the body of Hussein, a victim of the
suicide bombing a day earlier.
Ruhullah, 16, mourns during
the burial of his father, Hussein, a former police officer who was killed in the attack at the Kabul airport. Ruhullah survived the blast but got separated from his father and did not know he had died until he made his way back to his family a day later.
US President Joe Biden pauses as he listens to a question about the suicide bombing on August 26. He
vowed to retaliate for the attack. "We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay," he said.
People who were injured in the August 26 suicide bombing are visited by family members at a hospital in Kabul.
Smoke rises from the explosion outside the airport in Kabul on August 26.
An injured person arrives at a hospital after the suicide bombing outside the airport in Kabul on August 26.
Families who fled Kabul, Afghanistan, wait to board a bus in Chantilly, Virginia, after they arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport on August 25.
This satellite image shows crowds gathered outside a gate to the international airport in Kabul on August 23. Western countries were in
a frantic race to complete what US President Joe Biden called "one of the largest, most difficult airlifts in history."
Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, addresses hundreds of religious leaders who were attending an event held by the Taliban's Preaching and Guidance Commission on August 23.
Boys play in a retention pool in Kabul on August 22, at the tomb of Mohammed Nadir Shah, a former king of Afghanistan.
Amir Saib Zada negotiates with customers at his shop that sells luggage and burqas in Kabul's Lycee Maryam Bazaar on August 22.
People gather outside the airport in Kabul as a military transport plane takes off on August 21.
Families who fled Kabul board a bus in Chantilly, Virginia, after they arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport on August 21.
In this photo released by the US Air Force, an air crew prepares to load evacuees onto a C-17 transport plane at the airport in Kabul on August 21.
Khalil Haqqani, a leader of the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network and a US-designated terrorist, delivers remarks after Friday prayers at the Pul-e Khishti Mosque in Kabul on August 20. It was the first Friday prayers since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.
A boy sells Taliban flags to put on vehicles in the middle of a Kabul intersection on August 20.
People and vendors gather on the streets of Kabul on August 20.
Despite the presence of Taliban fighters around them,
Afghans wave the country's national flag during an Independence Day rally in Kabul on August 19. The Taliban seek to replace the black, red and green Afghan flag with their own white and black flag.
Afghans sit inside a US military aircraft to leave Kabul on August 19. The US Air Force
evacuated approximately 3,000 people from Kabul's international airport that day, according to a White House official. Nearly 350 US citizens were among the evacuees, the official said, with the others being family members of US citizens, Special Immigrant Visa applicants and their families, and other vulnerable Afghans. Some civilian charter flights had also departed the Kabul airport in the previous 24 hours.
In this photo released by the Taliban, fighters
brandish US assault weapons at an Independence Day parade in Qalat, Afghanistan, on August 19. The Taliban's newfound American arsenal is likely not limited to small arms, as the group captured sizable stockpiles of weapons and vehicles held at strongholds once controlled by US-backed forces.
In this still image taken from
a video posted to social media, a baby is handed to American troops over the perimeter wall of the airport in Kabul on August 19. Maj. James Stenger, a spokesman for the Marines,
confirmed to The New York Times that the baby received medical treatment and was reunited with their father at the airport.
A heavily armed Taliban fighter guards the Afghanistan central bank in Kabul on August 19.
In this photo released by the White House on August 18, US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are briefed by their national security team on the evolving situation in Afghanistan.
People walk past a half-destroyed poster of former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Kabul on August 18.
A Taliban fighter walks past a beauty salon in Kabul where images of women had been defaced by spray paint. As news broke that the Taliban had captured Kabul, some images of uncovered women
were painted over in the Afghan capital. When the Taliban last ruled in Afghanistan, women were barred from public life and only allowed outside when escorted by men and dressed in burqas.
A man carries a bloodied child as a wounded woman lies on the street after Taliban fighters fired guns and lashed out with whips and other objects to control a crowd outside the airport in Kabul on August 17. "The violence was indiscriminate,"
Los Angeles Times photographer Marcus Yam told CNN. "I even watched one Taliban fighter, after firing some shots in the general direction of the crowd, smiling at another Taliban fighter — as though it were a game to them or something."
A man reacts as he watches Taliban fighters use violence to control a crowd outside the airport on August 17. At least a dozen people were wounded in the incident,
according to the Los Angeles Times.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid addresses reporters in Kabul on August 17. "We don't want Afghanistan to be a battlefield," he said. "Today the fighting is over. ... Whoever was against the opposition has been given blanket amnesty." Those promises have been met with
skepticism by the international community. It was
the Taliban's first news conference since they took control of Kabul.
Afghans rush to the airport in Kabul as they try to flee the capital on August 16.
A US soldier points a gun while working to secure Kabul's airport on August 16. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved the deployment of 1,000 more American troops into the country due to the deteriorating security situation, a defense official told CNN, upping the number of troops in the country to 6,000.
Afghans sit on the tarmac as they wait to leave the airport in Kabul on August 16.
Afghans run alongside a US Air Force transport plane on the runway of the Kabul airport on August 16.
Video showed people clinging to the fuselage of the aircraft as it taxied.
In this photo released by the US Air Force, an Afghan child sleeps on the floor of an Air Force transport plane during an evacuation flight out of Kabul on August 15.
An Afghan soldier, who didn't want to use his name, is seen at an outpost in Kabul on August 15. He looked at the city below and said, "This is like a quick death," referring to the fall of Kabul. He said it was going to be a hard moment for him when he removes his uniform permanently after 10 years of service.
Taliban fighters sit inside the presidential palace in Kabul on August 15. The palace was
handed over to the Taliban after being vacated hours earlier by Afghan government officials.
A Taliban flag is seen on a motorcycle ridden by a Taliban fighter on August 15.
British forces arrive in Kabul on August 15 to assist British nationals in evacuating the city.
A US military helicopter flies above the US Embassy in Kabul on August 15. The embassy was evacuated as Taliban fighters entered the city.
Taliban fighters ride a Humvee near a Kabul roundabout on August 15.
Evacuees crowd the interior of a US Air Force transport plane as they travel from Kabul to Qatar on August 15.
A traffic jam is seen in Kabul on August 15 as some Afghans were looking to flee the city.
US President Joe Biden holds a virtual meeting with senior officials and members of his national security team on August 15. Biden was working from Maryland's Camp David, the presidential retreat where he was vacationing at the time.
Taliban fighters are seen in Kandahar, Afghanistan, on August 14. The Taliban had seized Kandahar, the country's second-largest city, and a number of other provincial capitals. Kandahar, which lies in the south of the country, had been besieged by the Taliban for weeks. Many observers
considered its fall as the beginning of the end for the country's government.
People wait to cross the Afghan-Pakistani border at Chaman, Pakistan, on August 13. The border crossing was closed for several days before it was reopened.
Displaced Afghans from the country's northern provinces arrive at a makeshift camp in Kabul on August 10. Provincial capitals in the north were among the first to fall to the Taliban.
Shops in Kunduz, Afghanistan, are damaged after fighting between Taliban militants and Afghan military forces on August 8. Kunduz was
the first major city to fall to the Taliban since they began their offensive in May.
Hanif, who was struck in the temple by a stray bullet, and his older brother, Mohammed, are seen at the Mirwais Regional Hospital in Kandahar on August 5. Kandahar had been under siege for a month.
An Afghan woman and her children carry their belongings after fleeing their home in Kandahar on August 4.
An Afghan militia fighter looks out for Taliban insurgents at an outpost in Afghanistan's Balkh Province on July 15.
US Gen. Austin S. Miller, left, greets Gen. Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, Afghanistan's defense minister, during a change-of-command ceremony in Kabul on July 12. Miller, the top American general in Afghanistan, was stepping down, a symbolic moment as the United States neared the end of its
20-year-old war in the country.
A member of the Afghan Special Forces drives a Humvee during a combat mission against the Taliban on July 11. Danish Siddiqui, the Reuters photographer who took this photo,
was killed days later during clashes in Afghanistan. Siddiqui had been a photographer for Reuters since 2010, and he was the news agency's chief photographer in India. He was also part of a Reuters team that won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography covering Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar.
A member of the Afghan Special Forces prays on a highway before a combat mission in Afghanistan's Kandahar province on July 11.
Afghan commandos look out from a window at a home in Kunduz on July 6. The Taliban were moving rapidly to take over districts in northern Afghanistan.
A member of Afghanistan's security forces walks at Bagram Air Base on July 5 after the last American troops
departed the compound. It marked the end of the American presence at a sprawling compound that became the center of military power in Afghanistan.
Hundreds of armed men attend a gathering on the outskirts of Kabul on June 23 to announce their support for Afghan security forces and say that they are ready to fight against the Taliban.
A helicopter is loaded onto a US Air Force plane as American forces carry out their withdrawal from Afghanistan on June 16.
A threat to women's rights
Nadim is aware that for every Afghan woman who has successfully evacuated the country, there are many who are still stranded.
When the Taliban took command from 1996 to 2001, women were prohibited from education and work. After the group was discharged in 2001, women were free to attend university and jobs.
As the Taliban returns to power, critics -- including Nadim -- have misgivings about whether they will stay faithful to their claims of ushering in a modern regime that is "inclusive" of women.
There were no women named as part of the Taliban's interim government on Tuesday, meaning Afghanistan now joins a dozen other countries where there are no women holding senior government roles.
"I'm scared that it's going to be the same rules they're [Taliban] going to bring back, even though they're saying something different. And that's upsetting to me.
"As I see it for the future of the Afghan women and girls, for me, education. That's something that should be a human right. Everyone should be able to go to school, try to improve their lives. So in that way, I don't understand [...] their values and the way they work.
"That's the bare minimum. Being able to go to school, have a voice, saying what you want to say. And I think that's something that's been taken away from them," she adds.
Nadim stands with former Afghan football captain Khalida Popal and her Olympian compatriot, Friba Rezayee, who each spoke to CNN Sport in August about how the Taliban's rise to power signals a threat to women's rights in the country.
"My message to every [...] individual and to organizations and to governments is that, just don't forget the women of Afghanistan, they have done nothing wrong and they should not be forgotten like this, and they need support, they need protection," Popal said.
"We will make this through. If nothing else, we will become a resistance group. We will fight for our rights no matter what," Rezayee said.
"If you're not allowed to play music or listen to music, how do you think sports are going to be in the conversation? And again, that's the stuff that I don't understand. What is the point of this? For me, it has nothing to do with religion," Nadim says.
"It's just a bunch of cavemen who are trying to control people by fear. And the way you make them fear is just by making them not have a life. So I don't see any sports in the future in Afghanistan, if it's male or female, unfortunately."
Former Afghanistan women's football captain Khalida Popal poses for a photographer at Farum Park stadium.
A beacon of light
Despite her prediction, Nadim is determined to be a beacon of light for young women in Afghanistan.
"No matter how hard the times are, one should never lose hope. You always try to feel or think that it's going to change and you're able to change it, with your mindset and your positive attitude," she says.
"But right now, I feel like saying this: it doesn't really hit home because, for me, even when I'm trying to imagine the future, I don't see any lights. It seems very dark.
"The only way I can see them having a future, in terms of where they are actually allowed to do basic stuff, basic human rights, is if the Taliban really loosens up because of the pressure of the international community, or they somehow are removed.
"I'm actually the picture of everything the Taliban don't want their women to be," Nadim adds.
"I'm actually, I mean, I use my speech. I use my voice. I want equality. I want the same rights as the men have.
"I express myself on the field, off the field. I think these are some of the values they [Taliban] didn't want women to have."
If her goalscoring record is anything to go by, Nadia Nadim is not in the business of wasting chances.
Approaching her mid-30s, many footballers would be forgiven for having one eye on winding down.
But in spite of all she has endured and accomplished, Nadim is fixed firmly on the future.
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"I'm only 33 years old, but I feel like I've lived seven, eight lives. And I feel the way it shaped me is, it's given me this character, this strength that I have today," she says.
"I don't want anyone to go through the same things that I went through, honestly. Not even my enemies. But on the other hand, that was the cards that I was dealt with in life. And I think I've made the best out of it.
"I think also that I'm far from finished. I have so many ambitions, so many goals in life. And I think I'm very driven. I'm involved in this second chance of life. I'm not going to waste it anyway."