The Promise of Possibility
If you do not follow women’s soccer then you are probably not familiar with the name Nadia Nadim. But if you are a fan of football (as soccer is called in the rest of the world) then you know that Nadim is an international superstar who is considered the greatest female Afghan football player of all time. Nadim has never played football for an Afghan team. She fled the country as a child with her mother and sisters when her father was killed by the Taliban in 2000. Her career began in Denmark where her mother found refuge for her family. Over the course of her career, Nadim has played for teams in England, France, and the United States as well as the Danish national team.
In addition to excelling in sports, Nadia speaks nine languages and is currently in the process of becoming a surgeon, attending medical school between football seasons. In 2018, Forbes named her #20 on their list of Most Powerful Women in International Sports. In 2019, Nadia Nadim was named UNESCO Champion for Girls and Women's Education. She received this recognition for her role in promoting sport and gender equality.
While we are big fans of football at our house, I did not learn about Nadim through the game. I first heard of her because of a documentary called A Stolen Life that tells her story. At 33 years old, Nadia Nadim is a success story. She has realized many of her childhood dreams and continues to set new goals for herself as she works toward becoming a surgeon and continues her professional football career in the National Women’s Soccer League. The title of the documentary stands out to me because in order to create this life, Nadim had to steal away from an oppressive regime that sought to control her because of her gender.
Who would Nadia Nadim be if she had stayed in Afghanistan? Under the Taliban regime, girls were denied access to education and adequate health care and severely restricted from moving about freely in public. In Afghanistan, Nadia would not have been in school learning multiple languages or discovering her love of science and medicine. She would not have had the freedom to play outside, to build relationships with teammates, to learn what she was capable of.
With the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan, I am thinking about Afghan girls and women at the same time I am preparing the Lower School for the return of our students. The exciting thing about this time of year is that it is full of promise. Students will be walking into new classrooms for the first time with a whole year ahead of them. So much is possible in a place like Ellis that is dedicated to supporting girls as they grow into who they are meant to be. We don’t yet know how an Ellis education will impact the life of the three-year-old in pre-kindergarten or a new fourth grader who has joined the team this year. We can only put the girls at the center of our work and do our best to understand who they are and what they need with the hope that they will develop toward their potential. Possibly there is someone among our students who will grow to be a champion for girls and women who do not have spaces like Ellis.
