They may not be a common sight on the streets of Kabul yet, but hundreds of young Afghans have taken up skateboarding thanks to the unlikely dream of an Australian with a passion for peace.
Thirty-something Oliver Percovich, who first stepped on a skateboard aged six, helped set up Skateistan after arriving in Kabul armed with just three boards in 2007.
Now about 330 young Afghans regularly ride the giant ramps at the skateboarding school and educational non-governmental organization’s indoor skate park in a giant hall in Kabul.
Photo: AFP
As well as teaching both boys and girls, aged between five and 19, how to carve and boardslide, Skateistan aims to help educate and build trust between young Afghans of different ethnicities.
After 30 years of war — most recently a Taliban insurgency which has brought 140,000 international troops to the country — many Afghans have grown up knowing nothing else, and suspicions between different ethnic groups are common.
The country’s educational system has also been hit hard by the conflict. Schools have been frequently targeted by the Taliban, particularly those for girls and in rural areas, despite international efforts at rebuilding.
“I like skating because of the movement and speed,” says 16-year-old skater Omar, who works as an apprentice in a tailor’s shop. “Here is better than school — we can relax, train, read, paint — we feel free.”
Two boys alongside him, 13-year-old Nawab and 14-year-old Nawi, came across Skateistan when they were selling chewing gum and cleaning car windows in the street to support their families.
Percovich, who grew up in Papua New Guinea and used to work for the Australian government, is convinced that education can “solve things” in Afghanistan, where around half of the population is aged under 25.
“Ultimately, what Skateistan wants to achieve is building trust, links between Afghans ... some understanding between ethnicities,” Percovich says. “Skateistan is mixing social backgrounds. Here a street kid can meet the son of a minister.”
“We promote activities that don’t exclude — how do you reconcile a kid that has Internet at home and writes e-mails with one holding a pen for the first time?” he adds.
Everything at the project is free. As well as skateboarding, children take classes in English, Dari, painting, photography, -poetry and even puppetry.
Boys and girls do not take classes on the same day, but girls have days of their own when they take to the ramps and also receive instruction in the other subjects from female teachers.
“Lots of sports are seen as for boys [but] skateboarding was too new to be related to a gender,” Percovich says with a smile.
Construction of the project, which opened in 2008, cost around 200,000 euros (US$275,000) and funding came from Denmark, Norway and Germany. Local construction companies also offered to work for discounted prices.
It now has a long list of private sponsors and has started producing its own range of branded, urban-cool streetwear in a bid to build up its financial independence.
For most young Afghans, skateboards are too expensive to buy for themselves and in any case, the rutted state of Kabul’s streets would make it difficult for them to ride freely around the city.
However, Skateistan is expanding to Mazar-i-Sharif in the north, as well as to Pakistan and, further afield, Cambodia.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS