Glamour Hero of the Month July 2006
Erin Zammett Ruddy
Glamour Magazine
06/09/2006
Making Girls Strong Again
Once terrorized by the Taliban, Afghan girls are
learning soccer and self-confidence, thanks to a program formed
by an American named Awista Ayub.
Awista Ayub was a young American college
grad who dreamed of visiting her parents’ homeland of
Afghanistan. But in 2002, after seeing how Afghan women were
confined to their homes and subjected to violence under the
Taliban, her dream changed. She became determined to empower
Afghan girls through sports, which had given her such confidence
as a girl growing up in Connecticut. So in early 2004 Ayub,
then 23, quit her job as a research chemist to start the Afghan
Youth Sports Exchange, which teaches Afghan girls how to start
soccer teams in their own communities. Why soccer? “All
you need is a ball,” says Ayub. By April 2006, when the
program hosted its first clinic, Ayub was amazed at the turnout.
“Two hundred and fifty girls showed up,” she says.
“Seeing them on the field laughing was the proudest moment
of my life.” On July 16, two of the girls will accept
the Arthur Ashe Courage Award from ESPN (watch at 9 P.M. ET).
Ayub’s program has won praise from U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleeza Rice, who told Glamour: “Awista’s work
shows young Afghan women that there is a wider world open to
them now that the brutality of the Taliban is a thing of the
past.”
