Born in Kabul, Awista Ayub escaped with her family to
Connecticut in 1981, when she was two years old, but her
connection to her heritage remained strong. An athlete her
whole life, she was inspired to start the Afghan Youth
Sports Exchange after September 11, 2001, as a way of
uniting girls of Afghanistan and giving them hope for their
future. She chose soccer because little more than a ball
and a field is needed to play; however, the courage it
would take for girls in Afghanistan to do this would have
to be tremendous--and the social change it could bring
about by making a loud and clear statement for Afghan women
was enough to convince Awista that it was possible, and
even necessary.
Under Taliban rule, girls in Afghanistan couldn't play
outside of their homes, let alone participate in a sport on
a team. So, Awista brought eight girls from Afghanistan to
the United States for a soccer clinic, in the hope of not
only teaching them the sport, but also instilling
confidence and a belief in their self- worth. They returned
to Afghanistan and spread their interest in playing soccer;
when Awista traveled there to host another clinic, hundreds
of girls turned out to participate--and the numbers of
players and teams keep growing. What began with eight young
women has now exploded into something of a phenomenon.
Fifteen teams now compete in the Afghanistan Football
Federation, with hundreds of girls participating.
Against all odds and fear, these girls decided to come
together and play a sport that has reintroduced the very
traits that decades of war had cruelly stripped away from
them--confidence and self-worth. In However Tall the
Mountain, Awista tells both her own story and the deeply
moving stories of the eight original girls, describing
their daily lives back in Afghanistan, and how they found
strength in each other, in teamwork, and in themselves--
taking impossible risks to obtain freedoms we take for
granted. This is a story about hope, about what home is,
and in the end, about determination. As the Afghan proverb
says, However tall the mountain, there's always a road.
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