Skateistan is quite possibly the only sports facility open to young girls, free of charge, in Kabul. Most are allowed to come because the instructors are female, it’s a private space, and we provide them with safe transport to the park. Most of the girls coming haven’t been taught a sport before, many have never had friends that weren’t family members or immediate neighbours or from a different ethnicity. For the impoverished girls especially, who work on the street every day, it’s a place where they can be someone else, someone who people respect and someone who’s proud of her accomplishments in class and the skatepark.
