‘The best day’: Afghan women’s football team find back of the net and rediscover joy

It’s an overcast Sunday afternoon at Ron Barassi Snr Reserve, a small community ground tucked away in Melbourne’s Docklands. On its lone pitch, two teams of women are approaching the 20th minute of their Victorian Women’s State League Four West clash. Both have had their chances, but the score remains goalless.

Aside from the larger than average crowd and a handful of cameras scattered around the touchline, it’s a scene largely archetypal of community football. The only seats to be found are the portable plastic variety; laid out as rudimentary benches for the two sets of substitutes. A few hours earlier, coaches had been putting up the nets, driving the corner flags into the turf and cleaning up dog refuse that had been left on the pitch by apathetic dog walkers.

It’s all very mundane, a typical autumn Sunday in Melbourne. Yet for the Afghan women’s national team that is in action for the first time at their new Australian home ground, resplendent in new red kits, there is beauty in the benign.

“[Returning to play was] a moment of pride for me, I am proud of my teammates; that they have managed to stand on their feet,” says Fatima*, who captains the side. “I back myself as well to be able to stand on my feet again after all that we went through.”

These players’ lives have come under threat simply due to a desire to play football. That they could simply jump on a bus and play a game that wouldn’t draw a second glance from an uninformed passerby is a novel experience for them. Routine for others, the chance to play football with friends or to dance to music blaring out from a portable speaker before heading to the dressing room is cause for celebration.

This team has been held up as an inspiration and a symbol around the