Kabul Girls Soccer Club: A Dream, Eight Girls, and a Journey Home

a positive and uplifting story - how the opportunity to travel to America and play soccer impacted the lives of eight young Afghan women and connected the author (an Afghan-American) with her homeland she never knew.

This is a fascinating glimpse into the world of young girls in Afghanistan and their experiences there and during visits to the US. The girl participate in a girls soccer team in Afghanistan where no such thing has ever existed before. It is most interesting to read the descriptions of the lives of the various team members, intersected with the views of the Afghan-American author and the girls experiences visiting the US for various soccer matches. I could not put this book down, the thoughts and feelings of the various girls and their reactions and responses to those of their family members were most interesting. The author was quite honest in expressing her feelings when confronted with the actuality of caring for and protecting these young girls upon their arrival in the US for a series of international soccer matches and dealing with her own confused identity as an Afghan-American woman. The book is heart warming, but there are many moments of great sadness and pathos as the situation of daily life in Afghanistan. These are brought to the fore by the clever use of the tales of the various soccer team members as they began to change as a result of their experiences playing on the team. The information about average, daily life in Afghanistan was presented in a most compelling fashion and made me hunger for a second book by this most promising of young writers.

I only have a few critiques. As a soccer player myself the terminology used throughout the book, such as goalie and not keeper (a goalie plays Hockey, not soccer) was a bit distracting. But that's a nit-picking detail. Overall I think this is a really great book and I learned a lot about the important role soccer (and sports in general) will play in the next 20 years. I liked that the book didn't focus on soccer specifically, but used the sport as a way to connect with the reader. (Much like how the sport connected the first 8 girls.) While the layout was different from other books I've read, I think it worked in this case. The font must have changed between pre-release and release, because I don't find it too small at all, as mentioned. I think the length is perfect and I look forward to learning more about Awista and her girls.

from my wife: Eight girls want to play soccer. One woman on the other side of the globe wants to make sure they get the opportunity to. After the fall of the Taliban, our author sees an opportunity to connect with her Afghan roots through international sports. A young woman herself, she takes on an ambitious project engineering the invitation to eight girls from Afghanistan: come to the United States for soccer training, and compete at the International Children's Games. This is a true story of re-establishing girls' sports in post-Taliban Afghanistan, and extending it to include soccer which was never before considered a girls' sport there. At times, it reads more like a collection of notes than a comprehensive story, jumping forward and backward in time haphazardly. However, the subject and the girls themselves are so compelling that it's well worth the read. It provides a surreptitious Afghan history and culture lesson amongst the events in these girls' lives, a thoroughly enjoyable package overall. In the end, we understand the great accomplishment of these young women, and feel grateful the author reached out to them in the way she did.

Imagine if you will, that you are a female living in a war torn country. You are essentially denied any freedom because of your gender. You cannot play sports or go to school. You can't watch TV or listen to music. You are not even able to leave the house without a male relative escorting you. In short, you are totally oppressed. This is what life under the Taliban was like for girls and women in Afghanistan. After over 30 years of Taliban rule, Afghanistan is slowly crawling out from under the oppressive thumb of the religious fundamentalism that they were forced under in the late 70's. In this book we see how social views have been clouded by Taliban rule to such a degree that it is still hard for Afghan women to go out and make a mark for themselves. Awista Ayub's However Tall the Mountain, is the story of eight young girls and their stories of life in Afghanistan. It is also her story. As an Afghan refugee who was smuggled out of the country as a toddler and raised in America. It was her vision that led to the Afghan Youth Sports Exchange (AYSF) and allowed soccer to be introduced into the lives of these eight Afghan girls. Afghan girls and women are now allowed to be educated and play sports as they did before Taliban rule, but much of the freedom they had before this, is still not totally within their grasp. In this book, we see how the young girls who are now playing soccer and making a name for themselves still face adversity. They are taunted by boys and men for playing a "man's game", soccer, but these remarkable young women press on and persevere as they lead the way for other young girls to do the same. This is also the homecoming story of Awista Ayub. Separated from her homeland as a toddler, she was raised in America. Because of the AYSE, she returned to her homeland for an extended visit and began to rediscover her native country. This is an inspiring story that will open your eyes and make you appreciate the freedoms that we American often take for granted.