How Yasmeen became a role model
Image: Anita Milas
Where Yasmeen Khan (20) grew up, girls did not play football. In fact, they barely left their Delhi slum dwellings at all. After school, chores around the house awaited. For many young girls, the next prospect was marriage. Yasmeen had never seen a different life path, but she was determined to carve it out.
What Yasmeen saw around her was nothing to aspire to. “Where I live, small kids as young as seven are delivering drugs and getting addicted. There are many dangers, including rape for girls. That happened lot. I used to play basketball in my school but outside of that, sport was not for girls. I am from a Muslim community, and even wearing sports clothes like shorts was not allowed.”
Yasmeen was 16 when a representative from the Indian social enterprise Slum Soccer came knocking on their door, quite literally. “They went from house to house to see if anyone wanted to play football.” Yasmeen spotted her chance and begged her family to be allowed to join.
At first, most parents did not allow their girls to come down to the training sessions. “It took a lot of convincing, the Slum Soccer trainers had to gain the trust in the community”, Yasmeen explains. Without any other girls attending, Yasmeen played with the boys at first. This led to a lot of pressure on her family. “There was no one else so I had to be the first one. People told my parents it would lead to bad things. They were manipulating them. Thankfully my parents always believed in me. They saw how happy it made me and they let me try.”
One by one, more girls started arriving at the training, though for many it remained a struggle to attend, says Yasmeen. “At first their parents said: ‘do all your household chores first and only if you have time left, you can go’. And many were also afraid about letting the girls come and go from training because it was dangerous on the streets. Or they would only allow them to play in clothes that completely cover the body. There were so many restrictions to play soccer.”
It all did not stop Yasmeen from training like her life depended on it. Because it did, she was certain of that. “Slum Soccer came to give us something that no one else was giving us. In our area, for most people their income is through garbage collection. There is a lot of poverty and little opportunity, especially for girls.”
When she got invited to go down to trial games, she had to travel alone on the train for 18 hours. To her, it felt like a big adventure that she was ready to start. “The trials took four or five days so I was gone for a week, for the first time on my own. I loved it.” When all her efforts led to her being picked for the national squad, her family could not be more proud.
Her patience was put to the test when the team had to pull out of the USA edition of the Homeless World Cup because of visa problems last year. She was devastated: “I was crying a lot, really a lot. My mum even told me that if I wanted to stop playing, I could. I almost gave up, but then I decided I should try again. The trials, the travel, the preparation, all the hard work. I did not want to miss another chance.”
Meanwhile, she also was involved in her local street soccer programme in the Delhi slums. Yasmeen started coaching younger children, teaching them street soccer whilst also educating both the girls and the boys on issues like gender-based violence and menstruation.
Image: Anita Milas
Slowly, she noticed, attitudes towards girls and sport started to change. “I even noticed in the way people spoke about me”, Yasmeen recalls. “Before, I would always be known by my parents’ name, so they would say ‘she’s his daughter’. All of a sudden it was the opposite. They would say: ‘that is Yasmeen’s father’.”
This year, she got another chance as the team’s visas for Korea came through with just hours to spare. Walking on to a soccer pitch is something Yasmeen will never take for granted. Wearing the Slum Soccer kit alone represents more than one battle: from beating the nationwide competition to being allowed to wear shorts to playing football at all.
The biggest battle though is yet to be fought, says Yasmeen. “We still have little kids in my neighbourhood using drugs, there is still rape and gender-based violence. Many girls still don’t play sports.” That is why she wants to study, to get a job that allows her to break away from the slum. She is determined to come back to make a difference to her community. “I want to help them. That is my duty.”
Yasmeen’s magic moments of the tournament started right from day one, with the opening parade. “After all the uncertainty with the visas we were just so, so happy to be there, and everyone was so friendly to us.” A highlight outside of the football was when she first walked into her hotel room and saw it had a private shower and toilet. “Where I live, the houses are so small and there are no facilities. So we all use communal washrooms that we share with many neighbours. I took a lot of photos of the hotel and shared them with my family.”
The national anthem being played before the first match was another goosebump-moment for her. Standing tall on the pitch, the national anthem played over the stadium speakers, Yasmeen represented more than just her country. She radiates everything she aspired to as a girl: strength, grit, determination and confidence. More than an Indian national team player, she has become a role model for all the little Yasmeens that will come after her.
Words: Danielle Batist
Photos: Anita Milas