Angelina Jolie in Afghanistan

Beautiful Black and White Photos of Angelina Jolie in Afghanistan




































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Pictures of Afghanistan

Beautiful Pictures of Afghanistan






























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Afghan Girls Soccer

by Carol Erickson
Under the Taliban rule in the mid 1990s, most Afghan children had no opportunity to play sports. So in the summer of 2004, after the fall of the Taliban, Awista Ayub, who had grown up in Afghanistan, brought eight Afghan girls to the United States for a soccer clinic.
In her newly published book, Kabul Girls Soccer Club, Ayub tells her own story and how these eight girls found the strength in each other, in teamwork, and in themselves, to take risks to obtain the kinds of freedoms that many of us take for granted. Fifteen teams now compete in the Afghanistan Football Federation, with hundreds of girls participating.
Ayub was born in Kabul, Afghanistan. In 1981, at the age of two, her family brought her to the United States where she thrived through organized athletics. She was determined to make a difference in her home country someday, and after September 11, 2001, she was inspired to start the Afghan Youth Sports Exchange, an organization dedicated to nurturing Afghan girls through soccer.
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“While the field of sports and development is still relatively young, evidence is growing that sports can play a key role in creating a safe space for women outside of the home and even go so far as to change the role of women in society long-term,” Ayub said. “Sports as an instrument for empowering women and girls in developing countries has engendered increased interest and support within the international development community in recent years.”
Until the Soviet invasion in 1978, Afghanistan’s larger cities, particularly Kabul, were progressive, as men and women had near equal opportunity and access to education and athletics. Throughout the 1970s, Kabul University had co-ed classrooms, and girls’ basketball and volleyball were common throughout the city. Even though men dominated the athletic arena during this time, women’s participation in sports was strong.
“During the next 20-plus years, both genders had limited access to sports,” Ayub said. “Brutal warfare dramatically changed the cultural landscape of the country, which regressed from a veritable ‘age of liberation’ in the 1970s to the age of social repression during the civil war in the early 1990s and under Taliban rule in the mid 1990s. Most Afghan children had no opportunity to play sports much less receive the proper training and coaching necessary for a high level of success in athletics.”
Currently in Afghanistan, sports have become a more acceptable activity for women and girls. Gender-segregated arenas and gymnasiums are a way to ensure that women can play sports in a female-only environment, ensuring the safety of young female athletes. Dedicated women coaches, trainers, and referees for women’s sports events and practices also are a way to respect current cultural traditions.
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When boys see girls in a new, action-oriented role, they learn about the strengths and capabilities that girls and women possess.
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In Kabul Girls Soccer Club, Ayub writes about one girl, Robina, who after taking up soccer, rediscovers herself:
“Now, after playing soccer seriously for months, Robina is aware of her body in a new way. Before, it was her hands that were necessary to her: to carry water up the mountain to their house, to scrub the floors, or to write out her lessons. But in soccer, they are useless. Now she's discovered her legs, her balance, the speed with which she can run. And her forehead, which she uses to butt the ball.”
“Before soccer, her legs and feet simply got her places, or kicked at rubbish or stones in her way. Now she knows each part of her foot intimately, the way it curves on one side, perfectly contoured to the side of the ball. She knows the strength of the broad, smooth sweep leading up to her ankles, and the dense, solid circle of her heel, perfect for pivoting.”
Ayub believes that girls’ athletics can also change the perception that men and boys may have of appropriate roles for women in Afghan society. When boys see girls in a new, action-oriented role, they learn about the strengths and capabilities that girls and women possess.
A portion of the books sales of Kabul Girls Soccer Club will be donated to the non-profit organization Women Win, which supports the empowerment of girls and women worldwide through sport. Awista was a Featured Commentator in the Gamechangers: Change the Game for Women in Sport competition.
Source: http://www.changemakers.com/en-us/node/82217
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Afghan women footballers dream of World Cup

By Daphne Benoit (AFP) –
KABUL — On a yellowing football pitch, next to concrete walls and razor wire, World Cup fever is running high for Afghan women footballers who dream of scoring for their war-torn country.
Training sessions may be interrupted by US helicopters landing, but the women play hard, tackling each other to the ground under the scorching summer sun.
"If anybody does that to me again, I'll do it to her," shouts one of the players after coming down in a tackle.
"Why are you laughing?" yells another at her teammates. "We have to be serious and exercise seriously."
Afghanistan is not likely to compete in a World Cup any time soon but its women's side trains fiercely in the heat, wearing headscarfs, track suits and long sleeves that cover everything except hands and faces.
Wearing shorts in Afghanistan is taboo. A few of the more daring players have swapped Muslim veils for baseball caps as they train next to the NATO headquarters in Kabul, nerve centre of a nine-year fight against the Taliban.
With the World Cup under way in South Africa, Hadisa Wali isn't missing a second of the action. She predicts victory for Brazil but her football hero is Cristiano Ronaldo, Real Madrid's star Portuguese midfielder.
Her favourite female players are Brazil's Marta Vieria da Silva and Germany's Birgit Prinz, two stars of international women's football.
Teammate Khalida Popal calls football "a passion" but a struggle for women, who were forbidden from sport and all public activities, including going to school, under the 1996-2001 Taliban regime.
"It's hard to play football here," she explains. Aged 20, she is one of the oldest players in a young Afghan team. She watches recruits shooting at the goal, clad in T-shirts bearing the image of President Hamid Karzai.
"Some families refuse, they say this is not for girls," she says. "Others don't like it that we go abroad without our families."
In 2007, the women's team started to travel, playing in Germany, Jordan and Pakistan.
"Sometimes, it just makes me cry. You have to fight to continue to play. It's just like the Americans who fight against the Taliban," she says.
Under the post-Taliban Afghan constitution, women are equal to men and a handful have competed in overseas competitions, mostly in martial arts events.
But women's groups say they remain the most marginalised and underprivileged group in the country, subject to violence and discrimination in the name of Afghan tradition. The war is another hindrance.
In the middle of training, the team suddenly races for the stands as -- without warning -- two US helicopters prepare to land on the pitch.
"Normally they warn us, but this time they've forgotten," says Wali, bending over to protect herself from the powerful downdraft as a Black Hawk has just set down on the grass.
Due to safety concerns in Kabul, where Taliban suicide attacks are on the rise and where facilities are few, women play on ground attached to the general headquarters of the 142,000-strong foreign military in Afghanistan.
When the aircraft take off, training can resume. In red jerseys and football boots, the teenagers run drills under the watchful eye of their trainer, the only man to be seen.
Kawsaz Amine, 16, came to watch. She feels sick so is not playing, listening to pop star Shakira's World Cup hit on her mobile phone.
Like her sister, who also plays in the national team, she was brought up with a passion for "The Beautiful Game".
"My father was footballer, my uncle too. They are very happy that I play in national team," Amine says.
For her, Argentina are well placed to win the World Cup. Her favourite player and inspiration is Argentine star striker Lionel Messi.
"I want to become the Messi of Afghanistan," she says with a huge smile.
Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gnZxctlhQh8HQCmsyeJblwv3Njlg

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Leader of Afghan women’s sport: Playing is political

By Sarah Odell and Lindsay Rico
Nasrin Arbabzadeh, the leader of the Afghan women’s sports delegation, has been actively working for years for the rights of Afghan women to complete in sports. In 2001, she traveled from city to city recruiting women to compete in the the Third Muslim Women Games. At the time, she told theMinneapolis Star-Tribune that she wore a burqa so as not to draw attention to her work. “My life would have been in danger if the Taliban had learned of my activities and my purpose,” she said.
During the opening ceremonies of those games, organizers staged a black out and many athletes wore black mourning clothing and carried candles as a sign of support for the 48 Afghan delegates. Their participation was a symbol of political resistance. “I’m competing here to denounce the Taliban’s uncivilized treatment of women in the name of Islam,” Salma Hosseini, tae kwan do silver medalist, announced at the time.
Last week, at the Fifth World Conference on Women & Sport in Sydney, Ababzadeh stood in a question and answer period, and sought insight into how to develop, support, and train female athletes in Afghanistan. “Does anybody know about the women in Afghanistan?” she asked. The hall was silent.
FGN spoke with Arbabzadeh about her work and the challenges for female athletes in her native country.
FGN: In Afghanistan, what kinds of sports do women compete in?
NA: They play football (Soccer), badminton, basketball, taekwondo, and volleyball. But it’s very hard for them. At first, their families are not happy and they make it difficult for the girls to play. But when these girls bring home medals and awards, then their parents are happy for them.
FGN: What are some of the challenges these girls and women experience?



NA: The difficulties don’t end with the family. Most of our athletes don’t have the right clothes, shoes, or food. And athletes who have become successful are often threatened. Sixty percent of people are happy with them, forty percent are not. People think they are bad girls because they have chosen to participate in athletics.
FGN:What is your role in women’s sports in Afganistan. Who has been important to your work?
NA: I am the first woman to start sports for girls in Afghanistan. I am so happy with Faezah Hashemi, the Iranian president of the Islamic Federation of Women Sport. She has helped lots of young women within the federation, regardless of what country they come from.
FGN: How did you first get girls involved in athletics?

NA: In 2001 I collected young girls who wanted to play sports brought them to the Muslim women games in Iran. The girls competed in volleyball, tae kwan doe, shooting, tennis, running, chess, and badminton. I paid for everything so my teams could go to this competition. The girls and their families were so happy, because in Afghanistan, there are no teams that allow women. But leaders in Afghanistan did not like what I was doing and I received threats, so [after the games] I went back to Iran.
FGN: Who was behind the threats? Why were you threatened?
NA: The Olympic manager. He did not have a lot of experience. He saw that I had experience and knowledge. I saw many things I wanted to change. I saw the disabled athletes had terrible equipment. I wanted to help them. I asked him why they did not have better equipment and he did not like that. He told my husband that if I had any more things to say about the Olympic management or problems, he would kill me.
Arbabzadeh now lives abroad, in Australia, and serves on the Women with Special Needs Committee for the Islamic Federation of Women Sport.
Source: http://fairgamenews.com/2010/05/leader-of-afghan-womens-sport-playing-is-political-and-potentially-life-threatening/
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