APL

Zahra Hassanzada was born in 1995 in Tehran, Iran. Her parents had already spent 17 years of their lives as immigrants taking refuge from bloody civil war back home. She was only nine years of age when her family moved back to Afghanistan and settled in Mazar-e-Sharif, Balkh.

She graduated from Mirwali High School in Balkh and passed the very competitive university entrance exam to attend Kabul University. "It was a dream come true, I have always wanted to study economics because that was what I was good at in school- math and science." she said.

She started playing football for the Public Health Football Club when she was only 14 years. She excelled in the club's internal competitions and was awarded several best player trophies. Two years ago, she joined the Balkh provincial football team and has been leading the team as their captain since then.

Zahra was also invited to train with the national team but, unfortunately, her tenure lasted only for one month after she had an appendix operation last winter. "I hope to join them back sooner as I am training hard to get in my best form." she said.

In order to prepare for her role as the team captain of Balkh, she's been traveling between Kabul and Balkh at least once a month over the  last several months to get  her team ready for the 2015 RAPL tournament.

At just 20 years old, Zahra is already a sophomore in university and knows what she wants from life. She confidently speaks of her ambition to become the coach of Afghanistan's Women National Football Team and make a contribution to the  Afghanistan's Ministry of Finance. It sounds very ambitious but she already has a plan to get there, through hard work and balance in her life.

These would be challenging life goals anywhere in the world, and even more so since she lives in Afghanistan. It takes more than courage and bravery for a young woman in this country to stay far away from home in a university dorm and train other women in football. Zahra humbly puts it in her own words, "My journey up to here hasn't been easy but I know how privileged I am to have the unconditional support of my family." Zahra has two younger brothers and she says both of them are enthusiastic football players and very supportive of her football career. "They look up to me as their role model in sport and life. I want to play the same role for my peers too." she said.