My Beautiful Sisters

WINNER OF CHARLES TYRWHITT SPORTS BOOK AWARD 2025 WINNER OF VIKKI ORVICE AWARD FOR WOMEN'S SPORTS WRITING 2025 SHORTLISTED FOR WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST SUMMER BOOKS OF 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