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Summary
Summary
A ball can start a revolution.
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 .
Author Notes
Awista Ayub was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and escaped with her family to Connecticut at 2 years old. Following 9/11, she founded the Afghan Youth Sports Exchange as a means of introducing soccer to the young women of Aghanistan, both on US and Afghan soil. Today, she serves as director of the AYSE and lives in Washington, DC.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
A group of Afghan girls are introduced to soccer American-style in this subtly composed, eye-opening tale of cultural clash and transformation. The author, the director of the Afghan Youth Sports Exchange (AYSE), whose own family emigrated from Kabul to Connecticut when the Soviet-backed coup took over the country in 1978, first sponsored eight Afghan girls to come to America to play soccer for six weeks in 2004. Having been grouped informally as a team only recently back in Afghanistan, where girls were rarely encouraged to play sports, the girls spent six weeks at soccer camps in America-in Washington, D.C.; Connecticut; Cleveland-playing soccer publicly for the first time. Ayub's account explores the diverse stories of the eight girls, who had lived through the recent nightmare era of the Taliban and in some cases were prohibited from attending school; excited and a little frightened by the attention they garnered in America, the eight girls, ranging in age from 10 to 16, then had to return to their humble, war-town families and use their newfound leadership skills to teach others. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
The improbable story of an Afghan-American writer's hard-won success in organizing the first girls' Afghan soccer team. After three decades of war in Afghanistan and five years under the brutal strictures of the Taliban, liberties for girls were gradually erased, from going to school to participating in sports. Ayub's family fled to the United States in 1979. Growing up an athletic girl in Connecticut, the author learned Pashto and kept in touch with her cultural heritage. In 2003 she sponsored a group of eight Afghan girl athletes to come to America and train for six weeks in preparation for the 2004 International Children's Games in Cleveland. The girls, ages 11 to 16, had been brought together to practice for some weeks previously at the Afghan Center in Kabul, though the author met them for the first time when they arrived in America in June 2004. In careful, descriptive prose, Ayub introduces each of the girls by way of her personality and family story. Samira, who became the goalie, wasn't able to attend school in Kabul from age five to ten because of the Taliban's edict against girls' education; Robina, the forward and natural leader, had taken to the streets with her numerous siblings to scavenge; the sisters Freshta, a forward, and Laila, a defender, were refugees from Pakistan. Ayub moves back and forth in time to follow the girls' development, chronicling how the single team eventually evolved into an entire organization, the Afghan Youth Sports Exchange. The narrative is occasionally disorientating, but Ayub offers a deeply sympathetic look at these girls and their immensely complicated existences. Somewhat erratically composed, but an empowering journey nonetheless. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In this heartwarming and deeply personal story, Ayub chronicles her efforts to bring eight Afghani girls to the U.S. in 2004 to participate in the Afghan-American Soccer Cup and International Children's Games. Focusing more on the girls than herself or the competitions, Ayub wisely allows their voices to come through as they talk about their homes and how soccer came to be a significant part of their lives. Readers will find themselves becoming emotionally attached to the girls as they push boundaries and take chances that only a few years before would have been unthinkable. In the years after their trip, Ayub reveals how their love of the game played out, with one girl having to give it up at the demand of her older brother. Overall, the group does find great success in Afghanistan, and in spite of some negative response, they persevere, and many continue to play. Lyrically written, this touching look at the lives of Afghani girls reveals how very much they have in common with their American counterparts.--Mondor, Colleen Copyright 2009 Booklist
Library Journal Review
How do you tell the varied stories of eight fiery Afghan teenagers as well as the life journey of their American-raised sponsor? The red thread that weaves through all these lives is not the game of soccer itself but a stubborn will to contend in the face of limited resources, family disapproval, and public harassment. Ayub, an Afghan-born American, founded the Afghan Youth Sports Exchange (AYSE) to draw Afghan girls into soccer as a method of empowerment. She weaves together the personal stories of the eight girls who pioneered the program, including their training trip to the United States and their return to form teams and compete in Afghanistan. These are tough girls raised in harsh environments; there is no need to linger on their suffering. Instead we rejoice with them in the freedom and power that comes from athletic achievement. Ayub's initiative has contributed to the establishment of a women's soccer program in Afghanistan. VERDICT The courage of these eight girls will inspire readers of all backgrounds. Recommended to general and undergraduate readers.-Lisa Klopfer, Eastern Michigan Univ., Ypsilanti (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
