“It’s like a community.” Raising self-esteem. Representation for young girls. Once-in-a-lifetime trips overseas. Those who experience the Islamic Soccer League tend to stick around.
Karmel Awad makes her way across the dewy grass on a crisp June morning, her two daughters racing to the soccer field ahead. At the field, she leaps into action, helping out with a warm-up that sets a dozen five-year-olds in multicoloured jerseys twirling around her. She’s one of hundreds of Muslim parents streaming to fields across Scarborough, bringing their kids to participate in the Islamic Soccer League .
“I feel like we were the first of our kind,” said Mehreen Khan, an administrative volunteer with the league who’s been involved since she was in high school. “We’ve had a lot of coaches who were in high school, doing their volunteer hours. Now, they’re getting married and having kids.” “It’s raising her self-esteem,” said Awad. “It’s all girls, they’re all doing it together, and no one has brought it up. She’s having a blast.”
Despite being a self-identified “basketball person,” Khan saw the value of a program like the ISL when she was in high school and volunteered with the organization all throughout university till now, where she brings her own children from their home in Ajax to play. Khadija Khan started out as an ISL player at the age of 12. Now a 23-year-old business graduate working in corporate tax, she trades her Saturday mornings to coach the U20 girls team. What shines bright in her memory is getting chosen by the league to play at a tournament in Egypt in 2016.
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