MAZAR-E-SHARIF – Sumira Aziz, 20, has been playing ping pong in Mazar-e-Sharif’s Table Tennis Club for almost one year. She is a 12th grade student at the Hashim Barat Girls High School.
“My parents encouraged me to join the city’s table-tennis club,” she said. “Their encouragement helped me win first place for three consecutive years at my school and to become the best player of the club.”
Mohammad Ibrahim Osmani, head of the Balkh Olympics Committee said that thousands of girls and young women have been playing soccer, volleyball, basketball, tennis, table tennis, taekwondo, and fitness in Mazar-e-Sharif.
“In addition to the registered number of female athletes, in the majority of households women are practicing various types of sport in their own homes,” he said. “Women are very interested in sports, but the lack of professional coaches and proper playgrounds prevent more women from participating in sports in Balkh province.”
The majority of the athletes in these clubs are girls and young women,” she said. “Women of all different types, such as thin, fat and even sick women are joining the fitness club to improve their health.” There are many other women in Mazar-e-Sharif who are very interested in joining fitness clubs, but there is lack of good facilities.Shukria Rasooli, an owner of a women’s fitness club in Mazar-e-Sahrif, says that hundreds of girls and young women have joined her club over the past four years.
“I suggest that government and international entities help us provide women with more facilities in this field,” says Rasooli.
Behjat Warekzai, a physical fitness teacher in Mazar-e-Sharif, believes that sport is critical to improving health.
“Sport improves the health of all human beings,” he said. “We should try to encourage people to exercise every day.” He also suggests that the central government should launch an awareness campaign to educate people, particularly women about the benefits of sport and exercise. “Women should not be prevented from doing exercise,” he insists.
Nooria Rahimi, a middle-aged woman and resident of Mawlana Balkhi in Mazar-e-Sharif bought a running machine to continue exercising in her own home.
Athletes Women in Mazar-e- Sharif
“I am a tailor and I was suffering from obesity,” she said. “I bought this machine to lose weight and get my body into shape.”
Given Afghanistan’s instability, cultural restrictions placed on women, and lack of facilities, Balkh’s provincial officials have overcome many constraints to provide women with sports facilities in Mazar-e-Sharif.
Mohammad Saber Sabori, Sports Officer at the Balkh Department of Education, said that sport and physical activity should be added to the curriculum for school students.
“Schools students just receive lectures on sport,” he said. “They are unable to exercise because there are no playgrounds or other necessary sports equipment in many schools.”
But some high school girls are lucky enough to have playgrounds and sport teams, he added.
“There are some girls’ high schools like Sultan Razia, Fatima-e- Balkhi, and Hashim Barat in Mazar-e-Sharif and Farida and Rabia in Balkh and Dah-e-dadi districts that have football, volleyball, table-tennis and chess teams,” he explained. “They usually hold friendly competitions and we just had a friendly ping pong competition between these schools.”
Najeeba Fowzhan, a student at the Literature Department of Balkh University, believes that sport promotes national unity and can introduce a unified “Afghan entity” to the rest of the world.
“The victory of Afghanistan’s Women Football Team in the South Asia Football Match as well as their performance in the Atlantic Games in China shows that Afghan women have the capacity and self-confidence to represent their skills to the world,” she said.
