In the Karakoram Range on the northeastern border of Pakistan, a group of Indigenous women and girls is defying conventions with a seemingly simple pastime: soccer.
The Gilgit-Baltistan Girls Football League is a bastion of independence and autonomy amid a traditionally conservative environment. “In our culture, girls were brought up to be brides,” says Karishma, the co-founder of the league, in a short documentary about the movement. “Everybody doesn’t want to be a princess.”
Titled “Girls Move Mountains,” the striking film is by Anna Huix, who visits this remote region and tags along with members of the Wakhi people as they practice and compete. As Huix shows, soccer is much more than a game for participants, who put themselves at risk in order to play. “As a child, Karishma faced harassment for wearing soccer attire, and as a woman, she battles online bullying from aggressive crowds challenging the rights of girls in the mountains,” the Barcelona-based filmmaker writes.
While news clips highlight the backlash against the league, we also see Karishma’s grandmother, who supports the women and shares that she would have played the game had it been available to her.
If you’re in New York, you can see “Girls Move Mountains” at a screening for Dumbo Film Festival. Find more of Huix’s work on her website and Instagram. You also might enjoy Celia D. Luna’s portraits of these skateboarders.
