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It is 3,100 meters and the air is thin. There are few grasses and the growing trees are sparse and surprising. It seems unlikely that a soccer tournament will be held. However, since 2018, the village of Passu in northern Pakistan has been home to the Gilgit-Baltistan Girls Football League for players aged 14-21. Each year, teams from local villages travel to Pass Valley, in the shadow of the 6,000-meter peak of the Karakolam Mountains, a physical border between Pakistan, China, India and Afghanistan, to compete in the tournament.
Born in 1998 and 1995 in nearby Simshall villages, sisters Karishma and Smayra Inayato, respectively, founded the league out of love for the game and as a way to inspire other young women. In Pakistan, women’s access to sports is limited by the same cultural and religious barriers that exist in almost every life. However, Simshal is located in the Hunza district, and the majority of its population is Waki, an ethnic group known to be relatively progressive with a focus on women’s education and equality. However, organizing this kind of tournament in northern Pakistan was not easy.
Spanish photographer Anna Huey first came to the area in 2013 while working on a story about Gemstone Miners. A few years later, she began studying stories about female alpinists. “Karakolam is where many alpinists around the world go to open new routes,” she says. “I came across this other story (in the girls’ football league) and I fell in love with it.” Huix contacted Karishma on Facebook. After years of messages and calls, she flew to Pakistan in October 2023, the last month of a year when access to the region was reliable. After October, winter begins to take hold and roads will no longer be able to pass.
Huix arrives at Shimshal knowing that she is making a movie. When her friend, a documentary filmmaker, saw the time for an interview where Huix went to Karishma and Sumaira on a video call before taking off to meet them, what began as a photographic story idea was more It transformed into something big. A short documentary. The resulting film is Girls Move Mountains, a 21-minute short story.
Karishma and Smailla fell in love with football when they moved from Simshall to Lahore as children. It was the first time they’d seen women or girls playing soccer and they wanted to participate. It instilled them a sense of pride and independence, but also a sense of fear. “Our neighbor came to my father and said, ‘Why is your daughter wearing pants and shirt, and why do they leave the house without a dupatta (scarf)?” I’m doing it,” Karishma says in the film. Sometimes they were harassed and forced into the streets. “But somehow, we got used to all the bullying. We became so strong that we didn’t really care much about anything.”
Living in Lahore they received a good education and began to consider their future, but their ideas were never far from Simshal. Most of their families still live in the village, and on their regular trips, the pair began to dream of setting up a soccer tournament there.
There were hurdles to overcome. “No matter how open the community is, there are always boundaries (men) set for women,” says Karishma. Even after the authorities agree to the tournament, not everyone in the community is sure. The girls received a barrage of abuse online, with street protests in the more conservative parts of the district. Religious leaders threatened to raid the pitch to stop the match, describing the tournament as “porn, exhibitionist events.”
The sisters must organize for armed police to protect the players, and after four days of competition, spectators are not allowed until the final match, when they were so confident they could not be problematic. That was it.
Marriage to young people in parts of Pakistan, particularly in rural areas, remains common. “The main problem in my village is that when girls are 18 or 19 years old and their parents can’t get education or pay, they think it’s a good idea to get them to marry. So, My husband can manage the rest of his life. I want to finish this. We want to give them a purpose. Some people will enroll in college on sports scholarships.”
Huix tells us about the length the sisters made to not only secure tournament funding, but also to extend their invitations to those who may benefit most. “What Karishma really wanted was to allow girls from more conservative backgrounds to join the league, so they’ll be a little more open-minded and study or independent. He is in contact with other girls he wants to. And in some places, Karishma goes to the girl’s house and persuades the family to play with the girl.”
In one of the gentlest moments in the film, Karishma’s grandmother reassures her when she brushes her hair. “Yes, some people disagree,” she says. “Many are jealous, but some are grateful. There’s no need to stop. You need to focus on your mission.” What’s strongest is the strength of the sister’s personality. “Our efforts will be rewarded,” Karishma says to the end.
She is currently in Paris and is receiving a scholarship to complete her MA in Sports Management. Such opportunities are truly the goal of the league. Giving a girl a glimpse into the big world and the possibilities there.
Josh Lustig is a photo editor for FT Weekend Magazine. “Girls Move Mountains” is currently touring the film festival. annahuix.com/girls-move-mountains
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