Author Awista Ayub will discuss her efforts to unite Afghani women through sports on Tuesday, Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. at the Nott Memorial.
Her talk is titled “However Tall the Mountain,” after her book of the same name. It is sponsored by the Office of the President, the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Office of Campus Diversity.
Ayub fled her native Afghanistan with her family in 1981, when she was 2. In the U.S., growing up in Connecticut, she flourished in organized athletics.
In 2003, she founded the Afghan Youth Sports Exchange with eight Afghan young women as a way of giving them hope under the harsh Taliban rule.
Fifteen teams and hundreds of girls now compete in an organized league through the Afghanistan Football Federation.
Ayub’s book chronicles her experiences using soccer to empower young women while working toward social change. The paperback version, released last year, is called “Kabul Girls Soccer Club.”
Awista received a bachelor of science degree in chemistry from the University of Rochester in 2001 and a master’s of public administration from the University of Delaware. From 2005 to 2007, she served as the education and health officer at the Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington, D.C.
She has been featured in a number of national news publications and programs including ABC News (Person of the Week), ESPN, Glamour (Hero of the Month), CNN American Morning, New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated.com, the San Francisco Chronicle and USA Today.
For more about Ayub’s mission, visit http://www.awistaayub.com.