This is the happy story of the day!
When the popular, Britain photographer, Jessica Fulford-Dobson, read a tiny column about young Kabul girls skateboarding and getting empowered, she knew she will have to fly to Kabul so she could capture the girls in her camera lens.
“The article was so short that I nearly missed it. The very idea of Afghan girls on skateboards captured my imagination and I thought it was a shame that such a visually striking story was compressed into a small column of text. We only seem to hear bleak news from Afghanistan, so it was really refreshing to read something so different and uplifting. I knew immediately that the Skate Girls of Kabul would be the perfect subject for me as a photographer. I specialize in portraiture, particularly of children, and here was an opportunity to photograph young girls doing something exceptional in a beautiful, albeit war-torn, country.”
Skateistan, a German non profit teaches girls to skate board from age 5 to 25 in Afghanistan, Cambodia and South Africa. Women in such oppressed state in Kabul feel empowered and learn to play and be brave through the world’s one of the dangerous games. Up to 40% of the learners at Skateistan are women. Jessica Fulford-Dobson got in touch with Skateistan’s founder, Oliver Percovich who agreed to give her permission to enter Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif schools.
Jessica loves to capture pictures in natural light. She decided to take pictures of the girls who stood adorably hugging their skateboards, gave bold, bad-ass looks and decided to get themselves capture as they play around with their boards.
Skateistan looks forward to offering more to the kids through their organisation. They like to help kids who are either street-workers, disabled or in poor circumstances with leadership quality and skills to bring a social change.
“They hurl themselves forward with unstoppable courage, and if they take a tumble they bounce right up again, running back to the queue and cheering on their friends. Life for these skate girls is undeniably different in so many ways to that of their Western counterparts, but it’s also touchingly, heartbreakingly and amusingly the same.”
The pictures clicked by Jessica are up for Photography exhibition at Saatchi Gallery in London until April 28th.
These beautiful pictures of Kabul girls is the most uplifting thing we came across, today.
