Thanks to the generosity of American University of Kabul, in the spring of 2010 AFCECO orphanages obtained free access to a fully maintained soccer field in a secure and private section of Southwest Kabul. Once a week boys and twice a week twenty-two of the older girls assemble for a clinic with a professional coach. There is very little in the way of athletic opportunity for young women in Afghanistan. The girls have learned the basics of the game, run drills and work on fitness.

Some of the girls show great promise and their coach isplanning to arrange scrimmages with the national team, the only other female organized team in the country.

The extent to which this one activity celebrates the liberation of girls from the oppressiveness of a fundamentalist society cannot be overstated. Just running free across a field in sportswear, pushing their bodies, developing teamwork and a competitive grit are elements that once experienced can never be eradicated. Likely some of these girls will end up on the national team, and all of them will bring this experience into their adult lives as a mitigating factor when it comes to their approach to life and desire for equality.