Photos Of Little Afghan Girls Skateboarding Show Us They Are More Than Just Victims Of War
A photographer documents a fun and inspiring project called Skateistan in Afghanistan that helps young girls to build their confidence! There couldn't have been a better Feel Good Friday story!
Cover image via http://www.jessicafd.com/
In a country where they're not even allowed on bicycles, girls between the ages of five and 16 are skateboarding, one of the most exhilarating, and oftentimes dangerous, sports in the world!
Image via Jessica Fulford-Dobson
This photograph, taken at a school in Kabul, Afghanistan, shows a little girl wearing an oversized red helmet on her head and bright pink knee-pads over her shalwar kameez, gazing directly at the camera. She stands atop a skateboard, ready to launch herself down a ramp at any second.
This is not just a child at play. The battered skateboard at her feet is symbolic of more than a toy. She is part of photographer Jessica Fulford-Dobson's attempt to document female defiance in her photo series called **Skate Girls of Kabul**.
Photographer Jessica travelled to Afghanistan to capture a project called 'Skateistan' set up in Kabul by Oliver Percovich, an Australian skateboarder, to give little Afghan girls the opportunity to skate!
Image via Jessica Fulford-Dobson
After reading about 'Skateistan' in a tiny newspaper article back in 2012, Jessica was hooked. She became determined to document this story of female defiance in a country ridden with conflict.
Image via Jessica Fulford-Dobson
Image via Skateistan
Her project, titled "Skate Girls of Kabul," is now receiving a great deal of attention around the world. But it wasn't easy, she says.
Image via Skateistan
There are some 300 girls who attend the school three days a week, and gets to do skateboarding in the afternoon as a reward for studying. Jessica, who immersed herself in the school for a month for her photography project in 2013, had to return back in 2014 to complete the series after classes at the school were suspended the previous year because of an increase in bombings in the city.
Image via Jessica Fulford-Dobson
Image via Skateistan
Speaking about the motivation in pursuing the project, Jessica says it was her desire to depict the women of Afghanistan as something other than victims of men, war and religious suppression
Image via Jessica Fulford-Dobson
In terms of Skateistan's vision, skateboarding is just the beginning
In the meantime, watching the girls skate is absolutely mesmerising. Whatever you do, don't stop the video before you get past minute 1:15. That's when things really start to get going!
"I hope that the joy, freedom and excitement you can see in the pictures of these Afghan girls is contagious," Jessica concludes!
Image via Jessica Fulford-Dobson
