Kim Kardashian funds a flight to help members of Afghanistan’s women’s youth soccer team escape to Britain

Kim Kardashian West has a passion to help people and the bank account to be able to do it. On Tuesday, November 18th the Associated Press revealed that a New York rabbi, a U.K. soccer club, and Kim helped more than 30 teenage members of Afghanistan’s women’s youth development soccer team that were in danger in Pakistan. The group of players boarded a plane funded by Kim and her company SKIMS early Thursday morning and they arrived safely at Stansted Airport near London where they will start their new lives after quarantining.

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As noted by the AP, women playing sports is seen as a political act of defiance against the Taliban and hundreds of athletes have left. While Kim funded the flight, the spearhead of the operation was Khalida Popal, a former captain of Afghanistan’s national women’s team. People said she felt “so happy and so relieved” that the girls and women were out of danger. Some of their family members had already been killed or taken, “So the danger and the stress was very high, and that’s why it was very important to move fast to get them outside Afghanistan,” she explained.

They secured their U.K Visas weeks ago but were left without flights and time was not on their side. After contacting the nonprofit U.S. group Tzedek Association, its founder Rabbi Moshe Margaretten, reached out to Kim to ask for help. Rabbi and Kim had already worked together on criminal justice reform in the U.S. and “Maybe an hour later, after the Zoom call, I got a text message that Kim wants to fund the entire flight,” he said.

Earlier this week Kim continued her fight to help inmates on death row and took to Twitter to make a plea for Julius Jones who was convicted of shooting a white businessman in 1999. “Julius, his family, and everyone on his team is still hopeful Stitt will do the right thing,” Kim tweeted referencing Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt. Julius was scheduled to be executed today but this morning Kim revealed on her Instagram story that the Governor decided to commute his sentence to life without parole- stopping the execution. “I’m so grateful to everyone who used their voice and deposed to save Julius‘ life today,” she wrote in her lengthy statement. Julius has maintained his innocence and asked Kim to pass along a few messages, the most important being “to always make sure you are the right thing.”