Fatima’s Dream

In this photostory we share a snippet of the story of Fatima, an aspiring Woman’s football player and refugee who has continued to pursue her dream of playing in the nationals after escaping the Taliban in her home country of Afghanistan and resettling in Italy.

A photostory by Sara Esposito

The 2023 Women's Soccer World Cup has just ended, played from 20 July to 20 August in Australia and New Zealand led to Spain's victory for the first time. The competition was also the occasion for another important first time: Nouhaila Benzina, the defender of Morocco, played wearing the hijab, the Islamic veil that guarantees the minimum coverage required by Islamic jurisprudence for women.

Fatima also wears the Hijab and she is a footballer too, a striker to be precise, a rising star of Afghan women's football. She is 21 years old and was born and raised in Herat, one of the Afghan cities occupied by the US Army since 2001.

This is the story of a girl who grew up during the last Afghan Republic and who hadn't ever lived under the Taliban regime. It is also the story that involves a country that has experienced one of the bloodiest wars of the last twenty years, and it is a personal story of an Afghan girl who, in the summer of 2023 during the women's soccer world Cup in Australia, and New Zealand, still dreams of being able to play football at the highest level.

Hers is also a symbolic story of many other young girls like her who have never known the Taliban regime, but only the long period of occupation by the NATO forces; who were sportswomen in their own country and had to flee in order to continue to be free women both to study and to be able to play football.

Today Fatima has the opportunity to be reborn as a woman and as a human being, and her eyes light up when she speaks with determination about her goals, she wants to continue following her dream, that of playing football.