The Somali Girls Who Will Play Basketball At All Costs

The story that we rarely get to hear of religious extremists and terrorists is the pain and torture they inflict on their own communities. For those looking in from the outside, this makes it easier to group people from areas with terrorists as all of the same mind, not taking into account that for most, daily life is a struggle against the oppression their societies face from such elements. 

This article on the struggle of young Somali girls to play basketball captures well the innocence of youth, the universal want of people (including children) to live normal lives even under abnormal circumstances. This is then contrasted against the forces that make it impossible for children to be children in so many places in the world. 

Aisha’s former teammate Amaal began playing with the encouragement of a friend, a lively, well-liked girl named Faiza. One day, before a game, al-Shabaab militants arrived at Faiza’s house. They took her to an empty lot and tortured her, cutting her body and face with shards of glass, shaved her head, and then left her to die. “It made me really scared for my life,” Amaal recalled. “You put your life in danger in this country because of the thing that you love.”

We follow the story of Aisha and her teammates growing up in Alshabaab-controlled Mogadishu and their passion for basketball — a sport that could get them killed. 

More than that, this is a story of sisterhood, male allies for gender equality, strength, determination and chasing ones dreams at a great risk. 

“To have a dream and wear pants and a shirt and hold a basketball—there’s nothing stronger to me,” she said. “To think about what I want for myself and to do it.”