Moya Dodd nominates Khalida Popal of Afghanistan to the SDG 5 Dream Team

The SDG 5 Dreamteam is an initiative by Global Goals World Cup, the Danish Permanent Mission to the UN, UNDP, Save the Children, UN Women, Women Deliver and the City of New York. Eight young gender activists from all over the world are coming together at the Global Goals World Cup Soccer tournament in New York City in September, to form the ultimate SDG 5 Dream Team. They will be celebrated like the champions each of them are, and experience what it is like to have a whole team supporting them in the fight against injustice.

Moya Dodd is the highest ranking woman in Australian and Asian soccer, outspoken gender equality activist and former vice captain of the Australian National Soccer Team.

Moya has experienced the Global Goals World Cup first hand in May 2016 when she was in Copenhagen for the Women Deliver Conference and was invited to play on the Global Goldiez team, playing for Gender equality.  

We were honored that she accepted the challenge of nominating the third player for the Global Goals World Cup SDG 5 Dream team,

The Dream Team consists of fearless and unstoppable young gender activists -The kind you would want on your team in the match against gender inequality.

Moya pointed to Khalida Popal. Watch the video below to find out why

Khalida Popal may be known in soccer circles as the first ever captain of the Afghanistan women’s National Soccer Team. But dig a little deeper and you realize, that this is probably the least impressive of her accomplishments.

She had to fight the Taliban and the mentality they left behind every step of the way. She was the first woman leader in the Afghanistan soccer association, and she never stopped speaking her mind and maintaining that there is nothing in religion that says women should not play sports.

As her voice grew, so did the target on her back, and eventually she had to flee the country, fearing for her life. She ended up being granted Asylumn in Denmark, and even while she was battling a career ending injury that took away her own dream of playing for a Danish club, she continued to dream abut sport belonging to everyone, especially women.

She started her own organization called Girl Power, which has the mission of using sport and movement to empower & improve inclusion and social participation of women. They mobilizes volunteer coaches from different sports to go to asylum centers and give women and girls the joy and health benefits of physical activity.

Welcome to the SDG5 Dream Team Khalida! We could not think of anyone we would rather have as defense in this drawn out match against gender inequality