For the Here for the Long Ball (#H4TLB) Audio Edition, I spoke with the amazing Erin Blankenship who is a conflict and security specialist as well as one of the founders of Equal Playing Field, a non-profit that uses soccer as a tool to end gender inequality in marginalized communities across the globe. What Erin and EPF accomplish every year is just amazing. From playing soccer on Mt. Kilimanjaro to setting up a match at the Dead Sea. They break world records to bring attention to their cause and I wanted to better understand how and why they make this magic happen. So before I left for France in 2019 to help them break yet ANOTHER two records, I got a chance to speak with Erin about growing up playing sports in Saudi Arabia and how that ignited her passion to foster more gender equality through sport.
On this episode, was hanging out at the Festival of Football in Lyon, France when I met the amazing Supriya Kumari and Abhia Haider. Kumari is from India and Haider is from Pakistan, two countries that historically have not had the best political relations, and yet there they were laughing together like sisters. I wanted to hear their story, not just because their relationship intrigued me, but because I knew both of them had started playing soccer in cultures that highly discouraged girls from participating in sport. More on Kumari: at the time of our recording, she worked for Yuwa, a nonprofit that operates in rural Jharkhand, India, where girls are highly at risk of child marriage abuse and human trafficking. The organization teaches soccer to youth in other to educate young women and to help them achieve their goals. And as for Haider: she played for Pakistan’s national team and is now a lawyer. This convo was a lot of fun y’all. I hope you enjoy.
In this episode, I share a conversation I had with someone I was bunking with in France in 2019: Sara, an Iranian activist who had been advocating tirelessly to allow women to watch soccer games in her home country. Thanks to her and many women who have sacrificed their safety and risked being punished/sent to jail, the government has loosened their ban on letting women into matches, however the fight still continues. I felt honored to have heard Sara’s perspective on the matter and I hope this conversation sheds a bit of light on how the struggle for gender equality manifests differently in each culture and country. To continue to follow the progress on the Open Stadiums movement on Twitter.
On this episode, I hang out with Brazilian activist and documentary producer Kely Nascimento-Deluca and American award-winning author of Raised a Warrior, Susie Petruccelli, who both shared with me what it was like to travel the world and see behind the scenes of the lives of female soccer stars across the globe. Together they filmed the soon-to-be-released doc, Warriors of a Beautiful Game, which “provides an unprecedented look at the evolution and current status of the fastest growing game in the world,” they write. These two women are inspiring power houses who have a lot to say about women’s rights and sports at the international level. I hope you enjoy!
On our final audio episode of Here for the Long Ball I share the conversation I had with trailblazing FIFA referee Kate Jacewicz. She was the first woman to ref in the A-League, which is the highest-level of pro men’s soccer in Australia. We met at the 2015 World Cup as soccer fans and I was super excited to see her realize one of her dreams of reffing a World Cup in 2019. I talked to her right after the tournament was over and through Kate, I got a behind-the-scenes understanding of what it’s actually like to become a ref at that level, what goes through their minds when they are on the pitch, how fit they have to be, and how VAR actually works (it’s fascinating and frustrating!!!). Check it out.
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HERE FOR THE LONG BALL 