Swimming in opposition to the tide: How one Afghan girl adopted her ardour

By Nilofar Niekpor Zamani

Shukria Qurbani used to spend each weekend on the pool, coaching along with her younger college students. Swimming was her life and the pool was a spot of calm, an escape from the bounds her society positioned on younger girls.

That was till 2021, when the Taliban returned to energy in her native Afghanistan. Now, the pool in Kabul the place she used to swim is dry, the constructing deserted and its doorways bolted in opposition to the younger girls she as soon as coached.

Taking up a sport was by no means simple for girls in Afghanistan, the place patriarchy pervaded society even earlier than the Taliban’s return. But prospects had opened up within the twenty years since they have been toppled from energy. Despite all of the obstacles, Shukria managed to observe her ardour for swimming and in 2017, after formal coaching, she was appointed as a coach for the Afghan Swimming Federation.

“My motivation for joining this sport wasn’t just personal interest. I had a deeper goal to fight against the restrictions imposed on women in Afghanistan’s traditional society,” she mentioned in an interview from her new residence in California. “I wanted to show those who oppose women’s progress that Afghan women can also have big dreams and achieve them.”

When the Taliban returned in 2021, all the things modified. Gym doorways have been locked, girls’s sports activities applications have been cancelled, and lots of of girls athletes have been out of the blue confined to their properties. Hope was concern.

Shukria knew that staying meant silence and disappearance. Seven months in the past, she made the troublesome determination to go away her nation, her household, and all the things she was hooked up to for a brand new life within the United States.

“Seven months ago, I had to leave Afghanistan because the threats had increased. Even at home, I didn’t feel safe. It was like any moment someone could knock on the door and ask, ‘Why are you still alive?’,” Shukria says.

Secret Swimmers

Shukria was born in 1989, and grew up in a society that instructed girls to be silent and passive from the beginning. She selected a distinct path.

When she determined to develop into a swimmer, her household supported her, however they nervous about her security and about what folks would suppose. It was uncommon for girls to swim, and the thought was anathema within the conservative society through which she grew up.

Still, Shukria didn’t hand over. She knew swimming was her ardour and believed she would in the future signify her nation in worldwide competitions.

At first, the pool’s existence was secret. Because of threats from the Taliban and different extremist teams, the house owners couldn’t promote it on social media, and though it was solely 20 meters from the lads’s pool, it was in a separate constructing underground. Only a number of girls knew about it, however for these few, it was a secure place. Every weekend, Shukria and her college students skilled for 5 hours a day.

To enter, there have been strict guidelines—you needed to ring the bell, move a safety verify by a girl, and hand over all recording units, together with cell phones. But for them, it was a door to freedom.

Each coaching course lasted three months. Shukria would select 10 college students for every course to show them the best way to swim. She skilled round 50 girls and ladies in Kabul, eight of whom have been registered as skilled swimmers underneath Afghanistan’s earlier authorities.

“Swimming wasn’t just a sport for me. It was a way to grow mentally, to find peace, to build self-confidence, to stay fit, and even to heal both physical and emotional problems,” she says.

“For an Afghan woman, swimming is not just a sport. It’s breathing, it’s proof of existence, it’s resistance.”

Shukria is now centered on studying English as she settles into her new life. Although she’s 1000’s of kilometres away, she nonetheless sees herself as a coach. Half her college students have migrated to Iran, and half are nonetheless in Kabul, ready for the day they will dive into the water once more. They ship her messages from quiet properties: “Don’t overlook us.