LANDI KOTAL: Muskan Rauf Afridi was the centre of media attention at the recently concluded national archery championship in Peshawar and that too for a legitimate reason as she is the first teenage girl archer from tribal areas.

Ms Afridi, 13, a student of 8th grade in a private school, belongs to the Shalobar tribe of Bara in Khyber Agency. The daughter of a retired police officer Rauf Khan Afridi, she has three more sisters and a brother.

But despite being too young and having no experience of national sports events, Ms Afridi handled the media quite maturely and also came up to the expectations of her trainer by securing third position in female archers individual event.

“Every region had three players each in men and female categories but I was the lone and first ever girl archer from Fata in the national archery competition,” Ms Afridi told this scribe.

But the issue could not deter her quest for winning a position and that too with just one month of training and a ‘run-of-the-mill’ bow and only four arrows.

Muskan Afridi wants more tribal girls to compete at national level in different sports

“Other players from different regions of the country had their own state of the art archery equipments of international standard but the three men from Fata and I shared just one bow and four arrows,” she said in a dismal voice while applying her force to pull the string of the only bow she had.

Also fond of skating, Ms Afridi derived her sporting inspiration from cricketer Shahid Afridi and said that his fighting and aggressive nature was an ideal for her.

“My entire family and especially my father supported me a lot. They never gave me the feelings that being a teenage girl I was not allowed to take part in any kind of sports,” she said while admitting that tribal girls were victims of many so-called taboos.

She wants more girl players from Fata to come forward and compete at national level in different games but regrets that lack of proper patronage and training and equipment is a serious impediment in their way.

“I wanted the Directorate of Sports and Culture Fata and Fata Olympics Association to encourage, train and patronise female players from tribal areas,” said Ms Afridi with a glimmer of hope in her eyes.

Her elder sister Bemisal Rauf Afridi told Dawn that Muskan was very fond of archery from her childhood and finally managed to represent Fata in national championship through her determination and hard work.

Ms Bemisal said that she had to abandon her M.Phil research in environmental sciences to give full support to her younger sister and arrange for her training in archery as she had a lot of faith in her hidden talent.

She said that in the beginning of Muskan’s training at Qayyum Stadium in Peshawar, her family had to arrange a bow and arrow from their own meagre resources as neither the Directorate of Sports Fata nor Fata Olympics Association was willing to support her.

“Girl players in Fata have little opportunities and they also get little chances to compete at national level. It was due to this very reason that I accompanied Muskan in every event and competition to encourage her,” she said.

Ms Afridi wants to continue her studies alongside taking part in archery competitions at national level and also to represent Pakistan at international level but she is also interested in becoming a pilot in future as she is fond of ‘flying high’.

Published in Dawn January 16th, 2017