ASIA HOUSE PAN-ASIA FILM SERIES- Afghan Girls Can Kick- Film screening and Q&A with Bahareh Hosseini July 21, 2010

A documentary following the moving story of Afghanistan’s national women’s football team. Women were excluded from sport and education under the Taliban but now that fundamentalists are no longer in power, some women are seizing their chance to participate in sports including football. The women of the national soccer team play with covered arms and legs (and when the camera’s rolling, with headscarves) yet no other international team has ever come to play them in Afghanistan – and NATO’s women soldiers are no match. Afghan Girls Can Kick follows the players’ journey to participate in a tournament at the Jinnah Stadium in Islamabad, Pakistan. It is the first time that the team will play a full-fledged game on a real soccer field. This inspirational film shows how the women footballers are still living with daily danger and insecurity, yet remain ambitious and hopeful about the future.