[Never imagined] The most popular skateboarding country in the world.

The most popular skateboarding country in the world,

Nearly half of the skaters are girls.

They don't have the "common equipment" of skateboarders, such as hats, shoes and tattoos. The most common painting style is

Wearing a headscarf and robes.

Slide up the street and down the slope.

All this happened in Afghanistan-a country that is generally considered to be war-torn, poor and backward, and the overall status of women is low.

Since 2007,

Skateboarding has gradually become a bright color in people's lives.

It has really changed children's lives.

The driving force behind the change is Mr. six Oliver Percovich, who has been skateboarding for 25 years.

In 2006, Oliver from Australia took his beloved skateboard to Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. Before that, his skateboarding has followed him to 50+ countries, and skateboarding is an indispensable part of his life.

On a strange street in Afghanistan, he still plays skateboarding, and no matter where he slides, it will always attract many people to watch-it is the first time that local people have seen skateboarding. The children are more active, surrounded by him layer by layer, excited and shy, eager to try. There are many little girls among them.

After staying in the local area for a while, Oliver found a strange thing:

There are many restrictions on women in Afghanistan. Most women can't go out to work, most girls are not allowed to go to school at home, and even sports are considered exclusive to men. It is considered immoral for a girl to ride a bike on the road, because riding a bike will expose a girl's curves.

Surprisingly, however, the little girls followed him on skateboarding, but they were never hindered.

After observing it in the dark for a long time, Oliver realized that skateboarding was so novel to local people that they didn't know how to define it, and they didn't have time to limit it with words or rules.

▲ "It is also considered immoral for women to ride bicycles. Just seeing a woman riding on a chair cushion makes many men feel "exposed". This description comes from the documentary "Afghanistan Cycles" released on 20 13, which tells the story of the first women's cycling team in Afghanistan.

Oliver started: In Afghanistan, it is said that girls are not allowed to ride bicycles, play football and play basketball. ...

but

Nobody said they couldn't skate!

So Oliver took advantage of this loophole fair and square. In a fountain that has been dry for many years, he started a free skateboarding class and officially taught local children to skateboard.

The original idea was simple. He wants more children in Afghanistan, especially girls, to enjoy sports through skateboarding.

In the daily skateboarding class, Oliver feels more and more strongly the extraordinary significance of skateboarding to himself and local children: it is no longer just a representative of street culture, nor is it just a sport.

One day, a group of girls refused to leave after skateboarding class. Holding hands, they sang and danced around the dry fountain pool. Oliver knows that these girls come from different neighborhoods, different nationalities and different beliefs, and there are many disputes and contradictions between their fathers. However, skateboarding brought these girls together.

"This is something that never happened when I was skateboarding in other countries. 」

▲ Skateboarding class for exclusive girls

Among this group of students, a girl named Fazla 12 years old further inspired Oliver.

Fazla's family is extremely poor. Once, her family wanted her to drop out of school and go home, so that she could have more time to go out and beg and help support a large family.

Hearing the news, Oliver was particularly anxious and tried every means to keep Fazla at school. At the same time, he also realized that there are many children like Fazla in Afghanistan, and it is difficult to really guarantee that these children can go to school by donations alone.

Coincidentally, Fazla has mastered very good skateboarding skills after studying in the skateboarding class. He negotiated with Fazila's family that as long as Fazila could continue to go to school, he would hire Fazila as a skateboarding assistant and pay a certain salary. Fazla's family agreed.

Fazla's story shows Oliver the possibility of linking skateboarding with education. He is increasingly convinced that skateboarding is really possible to bring more to children in Afghanistan.

"In fact, I am a poor man and don't have much money to support my ideas. He realized that it was not enough to fool around on his own. He needs to inspire more people to create change.

Thus, in 2007, the non-profit organization "Skateistan" was formally established. The name itself is very interesting, and it sounds like starting a free country.

Skateboarding Stan recruited volunteers all over the world to build a skateboarding park for children to use for free and teach regularly.

▲ Teaching will adapt to the special situation in Afghanistan and set up an "all-girl class".

Skateistan's model can be understood as "teaching you skateboarding and educating you".

"Go out for a walk": First, teachers and members will go out for a walk on skateboards and play with local children in the street, so as to attract more people to learn skateboarding in skateboarding schools.

"Two-hour course": one hour to learn skateboarding and the other hour to learn culture, art, human rights, environment and other knowledge in class, aiming at cultivating students' self-expression ability and creativity.

▲ One hour indoors and one hour outdoors.

Back to school: The most important thing is to send school-age children back to school. Skateboarding school will arrange upgrading classes for these children, and they will go to skateboarding school every Friday. When they catch up with the rhythm of public schools, help them contact the school and return to the corresponding grade.

Skateboarding school also provides assistant positions for students as excellent as Fazla. Teaching assistants can guide students in the skateboarding park to exchange rewards and help their families, thus greatly reducing the pressure of dropping out of school for economic reasons.

In this way, skateboarding and education became the "new education" in Kabul.

Photographer Fulford Dobson volunteered to record the little changes of children in skateboarding Stan.

She sighed with emotion, "Only there, in only a few hours a week, can they live out their childhood. There, they are far away from the war and don't have to endure the working life on the streets. 」

"When I stepped on the skateboard, I felt like I was flying," said tamana, a student. Skateboarding Stan helped her get back to school.

In the past 10 years, "Skateboard Stan" has influenced more than 800 children. Skateboarding originated in Afghanistan and has spread to Cambodia, South Africa and other countries.

When these children's bodies are free because of skateboarding, their hearts can no longer be bound, and their desire for peace and equality will be rooted in their hearts with skateboarding culture.

On the wall of skatepark, children draw graffiti against the war.

▼

They can also skate,

Break the gun in the future with the free will that has been released.

▲ Skatestein's logo