She dreams of playing football for India
SRINAGAR: Under a clear blue sky, in fluorescent orange and green jerseys, bubbly Kashmiri girls chased a football in a sprawling city playground, a kilometer away from where some of them, their faces veiled, fiercely pelted stones on police on Monday.Kashmir lives contradictions by the day. "Yes, I pelted stones yesterday. But that's not what I want to do. I want to play at the national level for India," Kashmir's first female football coach Afshan Ashique, 21, said, holding a brown football under her foot. On Monday, Afshan, a BA second-year student of the Government Women's College, and her team of 20 from the Girls' Government Higher Secondary School Kothi Bagh, were trying to reach their playground for practice when they saw a group of boys pelting stones at police across the road, near Pratap Park. Students in Kashmir have been protesting against police action in the Pulwama Degree College last week.
Afshan said, "I told the girls not to panic and asked them to wait. Police misunderstood and assumed that we were there to pelt stones. A cop walked up to us and slapped a girl and called her names. That enraged us. I wanted to stand by the girl, so we all started pelting stones at police." However, a police officer claimed that the girls started pelting stones because they realised that police would not retaliate. "Police and CRPF have been maintaining maximum restraint, which is evident from the fact that no student was hurt," the officer said.
According to college professor Shagufta Yavas, a group of boys from SP Higher Secondary School broke the college wall on Monday and entered the premises in an attempt to instigate the female students to join them in pelting stones. "Only a handful of girls joined them within the college premises," Yavas, also the college's principal, said. It was spur of the moment, coach Afshan stressed while introducing the 16-year-old girl who was allegedly slapped. "I pelted stones, too," the girl, who didn't want to be named, said with a sense of satisfaction.
"It's the Army, CRPF and police I am angry with. I saw a video in which the CRPF was beating a woman. I am not afraid of them. I am ready to pelt them with stones," she said with a lump in her throat. Some of her friends, she said, pelted stones thinking, "Ladkon ke khoon se to azadi nahi mili, shayad ab ladkiyon ke khoon se hi azadi milegi (We didn't get freedom with boys shedding blood. Perhaps, we will get freedom with girls shedding blood)."
The teenager laments how the youth feel humiliated and constrained by curbs on their freedoms by the security forces under curfew and strikes. The girl, whose father is a J&K government employee, is, however, aware that there's no common ground between the street fight against India and the football field to which she was drawn due to coach Afshan's motivation.
Afshan intervened, "I am clear in my mind that our future is with India. I debate with stone-pelters and try to persuade them to come to the field and play football instead. The solution to the conflict might emerge from sports." Afshan has been playing football for the last five years and training over 30 girls under a state government initiative. The 16-year-old finds herself struggling with the choices Afshan asks her to pick from. Between the sport that she is passionate about and the street warfare against India, the girl chooses. "I want to be in the field here, with the ball."
