By Fitzgerald Cecilio

Kabul, Afghanistan

Former U.S. Olympic soccer player Lorrie Fair staged a clinic for the Afghanistan women's soccer team in Kabul that was set up by the State Department.

During the Taliban era in Afghanistan, women were barely able to leave the house, let alone play sports.

They continue to face countless obstacles. To be able to play some pretended to be boys while others got together secretly.

Team captain Zahra Mahmoudi said that being a soccer player in Afghanistan is a fight against the Taliban and all the people who don't want females to be in society or to work or to study.

Many families don't want their daughters to face the security risks associated with being a female athlete, and women often lack resources and safe places to train.

"I'm studying coaching football now, and I hope in the future I can become a coach, because it's very essential for Afghan culture that a woman teach girls," Mahmoudi says.

"I'm constantly inspired by the things they do, because we're very lucky in the U.S. to have support for women's sports," Fair said.

 

 

 

Lorrie Fair Gives Pointers to Afghan Women Soccer Team