MY BEAUTIFUL SISTERS PB – KHALIDA POPAL

SHORTLISTED FOR WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 A GUARDIAN AND FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 Riveting, heart-wrenching and incredibly important . . . an inspirational story for girls and women everywhere MALALA YOUSAFZAI, Nobel Peace Prize laureate A story of survival, sisterhood and the fight for feminism in the age of the Taliban. August 2021: Kabul falls to the Taliban. Overnight, life for women across Afghanistan changes. The national women s football team faces an imminent threat to their lives, just for playing sport. For Khalida Popal, the team s first captain and co-founder, this is not an unprecedented event. Born in Afghanistan, as a child she fled Taliban rule with her family and grew up in a refugee camp in Pakistan. On her return to Afghanistan, football gave her and her teammates power, comradeship and freedom. But advocating for women s rights in sport put Popal s life increasingly at risk, forcing her to flee the country, this time alone. As a refugee in Denmark, Popal worked to uncover widespread sexual abuse of players by the former president of the Afghanistan Football Federation – forcing FIFA and the government of Afghanistan to act. When Kabul falls Khalida is safe, but her teammates are left behind. Against all the odds, she and a small but mighty network of allies orchestrate an international evacuation strategy to save them. My Beautiful Sisters is a gripping memoir about courage, the power of teamwork against all odds and the existence of hope in dark times.