27 May 2015

Meet the skate girls of Kabul

Awesome to see skateboarding adding value all over the world.

From a recent Fast Company article:

“In Afghanistan, where few women drive, and female soccer teams have faced death threats it’s now possible to find seven-year-old girls learning to ollie and ride a halfpipe on a skateboard. In a recent photo series, U.K.-based photographer Jessica Fulford-Dobson documented the girls of Skateistan, a program that helps young Afghans learn to skate—and brings them back to school.

The program helps empower girls. “It’s impossible to avoid how much joy and action there is as the girls whiz up, down and around the hall,” she says. “One amazing thing about skateboarding is that it demonstrates—perhaps more than many other sports—just how tough and resilient these girls, or any girls, can be. They hurl themselves forward with unstoppable courage, and if they take a tumble they bounce right up again, running back to the queue and cheering on their friends. It’s a brilliant way to illustrate the strength, enthusiasm, and positivity of young women in Afghanistan.”

Read more of this article and see the amazing images here.