Bravo, the soccer princesses of rural Bangladesh!

Bravo, the soccer princesses of rural Bangladesh!

The notion of women in Bangladesh sport dates as far back as the Pakistan days in the 1960s. The country was then called East Pakistan, the eastern part of Pakistan. Despite being created on a religious identity, women in the country were, surprisingly, relatively free in its early days. West Pakistan formed its women's cricket teams just fifteen years after the country's creation in 1947. Like in the movie industry, women in sports were also able to spark considerable interest in the male-dominated society in both parts of Pakistan. Thus Dhaka could boast of its track and field stellar figure Dolly Cruz and a lot of others eight to nine years before the birth of Bangladesh.

In independent Bangladesh, a group of dauntless and devoted sports women heralded a new era in the country's sports. They included the most gifted sports woman of the time --- Sultana Ahmed Khuki  (later Sultana Kamal). Called the 'Golden Girl of East Pakistan', she made national records in long jump and 100-metre dash.  Sultana was married to Sheikh Kamal, the elder son of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. She was killed along with Kamal on the night of the assassination of the Father of the Nation along with a number of his family members on August 15, 1975. Thus Bangladesh lost one of its bright and most promising sport stars in the early days of the country. Yet the legacy Sultana had left in a country that emerged through a Liberation War kept glowing as time went by. In a decade's time, Bangladesh earned the capability to take pride in its fast-emerging women sport talents.

In the last few decades, Bangladesh women proved their sporting excellence in both regional and national arenas. In the twelfth South Asian Games participated by the SAARC countries, Bangladeshi women have been seen steadily improving their performance. The SA Games had opened in Kathmandu 1984. Its latest edition was held in Guahati and Shillong in February this year in north-eastern India, with our women setting records in a number of events alongside the males. This year swimmer Mahfuza Khatun Shila won two gold medals, with another going to Mabia Akhter Simanta in weightlifting taking the gold medal total for the country to three.  In the South Asian sporting meet, the country has lately begun demonstrating its long-dormant talent in a number of events. They include swimming, shooting, weightlifting, kabadi, football, hockey etc. Our women sporting talents' performance in the Asian Games over the past years also deserves mention. In the broader sporting meet of the 53-country Commonwealth Games, Bangladeshi women shooters stood out with their unique finesse. The women's national cricket and football teams of the country have already shown enormous prospects for emerging as potential sides in regional and international perspectives.

Against the backdrop of this march of the country's women sport powerhouse, heartening tales keep coming from the country's remote areas --- mostly in the rural countryside. Bangladesh women have long proved their utmost dedication and sincerity in embarking on entrepreneurship. The vast rural areas of the country are these days dotted with women-run enterprises. The incentive of micro-credit and its fruitful and creative use has for over a couple of decades been playing a significant role in the rural economic uplift. The number of girls successfully attending primary and secondary-level schools is on a fast rise. In line with this upbeat scenario, why should the teenage girls in villages lag behind in sports? After making their ragtag debut appearance in 2011, the intrepid school-going girl football players in two villages in just a year found their role-models in two Bangladesh women mountaineers.  During their very formative days, they may have been inspired by our women Mount Everest and other summit winning conquerors. The two, however, grew up in urban atmospheres. The indomitable and determined young Bangladesh women mountaineers Nishat Majumder (reaching Everest May 19, 2012) and Wasfia Nazreen (reaching Everest May 26, 2012) had apparently appeared as virtual female heroes to the country's scores of aspiring sports women. The Everest feat of Wasfia was part of her worldwide seven-summit expeditions. The two had obviously imparted to the rural girl footballers the imperatives of professionalism, rigorous training and the nurturing of determination. In a couple of years, these teenage village girls magnificently displayed their firmness in reaching their challenging goals.

In order to have a glimpse of the sporting ambitions of these girl footballers, we can visit two obscure hamlets in the districts of Mymensingh and Rangpur. The village called Kolsundar in Mymensingh has already made the headlines thanks to its raising of an all-girl soccer team. It got its formal shape in 2011. The 19-member football team, guided and coached by local soccer enthusiasts, has been enrolled in the government-run sports training school in Dhaka. Earlier, the team became champion twice at national-level matches. Almost all of them coming from poor and unlettered farmers' families, these school-going students make the people of Kolsundar village feel proud. There are ample reasons for it. Ten players of the 18-member under-14 national girls' football team have been chosen from Kolsundar. In fact, this soccer team born of the sheer adolescent love and passion for the game is a rare event in the country's history. Its emergence occurred in 2011. The most striking part of the episode is the team's all-female nature; and also the unalloyed encouragement coming from the common villagers including the girls' parents and teachers.

All this stands in sharp contrast to the highly tradition-bound nature of the Bangladesh villages. The tale of the fast rise of another teenage girls' team in Nayapukur, a sleepy village 15 kilometres from the Rangpur district town, is amazingly similar. The soccer-crazy school girls in this village too have been trained on the game's skills and art by the local football coaches. Thanks to the support of the area's influential people, the village now has a football academy. With the backing of the institution, the Nayapukur soccer team has once earned the distinction of becoming national champions. Five players of the team, formed in 2011, have mastered the required skill and ability to play abroad. Three players of the Nayapukur team played on the Bangladesh side in the under-14 girls' championship match in Tajikistan this year. They have earned their much-deserved laurels by defeating India 9-0. The little soccer heroines have brought the previously sidestepped and hardly-talked-about village into a wide national focus.

The villages of Kolsundar and Nayapukur may not finally turn out to be that unique. Maybe, there are dozens other villages in the other parts of the country whose young women are on way to achieving feats in some other disciplines. Upon finding the proper outlets to demonstrate their genius, they, too, can add to the pool of the country's women power.

Bangladesh women and girls have been showing their gifts for socio-political and cultural careers, as well as for economic ventures since the country's independence. Their flair for games and sport has been noticed only recently. These activities only prove their never-waning awareness of their prime role in socio-cultural and economic uplift. True, there are pockets of regressive cabal and obscurantism. But in the face of a collective determination to cross hurdles, detrimental forces take a backseat. The ardent desire to overcome once defined the predecessors of our today's women. Our rural girl footballers have surely inherited it as part of their national ethos.

Source Link: https://mail.google.com/mail/ca/u/0/#inbox/15967d86361cce97

Source: Financial Express Bangladesh

Updated Date: 4th January, 2017