Afghan girls train for soccer tourney in CT

Newsday
July 22, 2004
By LAURA WALSH

AP

SIMSBURY (AP) -- On the field, the girls laugh when they smack the soccer ball with their heads and scream "goal" when they score. But off the field, they're all business.

During lunch, the eight Afghan soccer players rush to fill their plates with food their American friends would rather do without - grapes, cucumbers and lots and lots of rice. They talk fast with one another, giggling in their native Farsi, and don't bother to take off their shin guards or cleats.

The girls, who range in ages between 11 and 16, want to hurry back to the field where they can squeeze in more practice time before next week's International Children's Games in Cleveland, Ohio.

They are taking part in a three-week training camp sponsored by the Afghan Youth Sports Exchange. They started playing soccer only three months ago to prepare for their trip to the United States to learn the game.

The group is staying and training at The Ethel Walker School in Simsbury. The idea behind the program is for the girls to teach the game to their friends and classmates when they return to Afghanistan in early August, said AYSE founder Awista Ayub.

"One of the biggest life lessons I learned from sports was perseverance," said Ayub, 24, of Waterbury. "You don't just give up if you lose a game, and you can't give up in life. That's what I want them to understand."

The girls all live in Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan, and suffered through the Taliban regime - a time when they weren't allowed to attend school, play sports or consider careers. The country was even banned from the 2000 Sydney Olympics because the Taliban regime outlawed women from sports.

Since the Taliban was ousted by U.S.-led forces in late 2001, Afghan women have begun the long journey toward freedom. Women are lining up to register to vote, girls have returned to school and Afghanistan will participate in the Olympics this summer. Soccer, however, remains a sport dominated by men.

"They tell me things are changing, which is good to hear from their mouths," said Ayub, sighing. "They say it's slow, but it's happening."

Ayub quit her job as a research chemist at General Electric Co. in Albany, N.Y., to start the program last year. AYSE got off to a rocky start but found its course with the help of Duaine Goodno, director of the Afghan Center in Kabul, who helped select Ayub's eight players.

Ayub, who was born in Afghanistan and moved to Waterbury when she was 2 years old, has spent thousands of dollars of her own money to fund the program. Local groups have donated all the equipment and clothes, and American Airlines is paying for their domestic flights. The girls are also staying in one of the dorms at The Ethel Walker School for free. In the last few weeks, the girls have trained with more than 10 different local coaches.

They've worked on basic techniques - kicking, passing and shooting - and have nabbed all the proper catch phrases, like "Our Ball!" They speak only bits and pieces of English and do most of their communicating through a 13-year-old translator named Roya Zaka, of Reston, Va. She speaks both Farsi and English fluently, and is in awe of how different the girls' lives are from her own.

They nod in agreement as one player Shamilla Kohestani, 16, talks about how the roads in Afghanistan aren't paved and electricity is scarce. Their suitcases are filled with loose-fitting clothes and button-up shirts.

"I wore a tank top once and they were like, 'Oh no, what are you doing,"' Zaka said. "It's a different life and I'm realizing now how much I take for granted." Kohestani said volleyball and basketball are popular sports for girls, but soccer is something only her brother and his friends play. "I want to go home and play with him," Kohestani said.

The girls leave for the International Children's Games on Wednesday and will join more than 2,500 children from more than 50 different countries. This is the first time Afghanistan is participating in the games and the girls are representing the only delegation from their country, said Carol Payto, a spokeswoman for the games.

Ayub plans to continue the program next summer and wants to keep in contact with the team. She is sending equipment back to Afghanistan to be used at the Afghan Center. "I just want to see them in six years and see what they've done, who they have taught" she said.