‘What’s more important, my dream or the women of Afghanistan?’: breakdancer Manizha Talash on her Olympic protest

Manizha Talash says she knew she would be disqualified after wrapping herself in in a ‘Free Afghan Women’ cape while competing at the Olympics in Paris. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

When Manizha Talash ended her breakdance routine at the Paris Olympics by wrapping herself in a cape bearing the slogan “Free Afghan Women”, she knew she would be disqualified. “I had been thinking about this for four months, ever since I knew I was going to the Olympics,” says Talash, 21.

“I thought: I’ve got one minute when the whole world’s watching me and I thought, what’s more important, my dream, my life, or women in Afghanistan? I didn’t go there to win, that doesn’t matter to me.”