Abstract
In the wake of the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan and its ban on women’s sport, hundreds of Afghan athletes, including several Olympians, decided to flee the country rather than give up their sports and see their rights curtailed. This paper explores how Afghan women now living in Australia navigate agency and aspirations on and off the soccer field within the context of high levels of uncertainty, instability, and constraint. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 18 participants, the results demonstrate how soccer offers an insightful microcosm of settlement as a continuation of a fraught journey. The findings reveal both the multi-layered constraints the women experienced and how they navigated these constraints with creativity, resourcefulness, and aspiration for the future.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | American Behavioral Scientist |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 17 Jun 2024 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2024 SAGE Publications.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the Australian Research Council (Grant No. LP180100038); Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries, Western Australia; Cricket Victoria; Centre for Multicultural Youth; and Victorian Health Promotion Foundation.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Western Australia | |
| VicHealth | |
| Department of Local Government, Sport and cultural industries | |
| Cricket Victoria | |
| Australian Research Council | LP180100038 |
Keywords
- gender
- human rights
- settlement
- social navigation
- sport