The Diplomat
Overview
Women play football near Kök-Tash village
Women play football near Kök-Tash village
Danil Usmanov
Leads

A Football Game Amid the Sorrows of Life on the Kyrgyz Border

On a hot summer day, the women of Kök-Tash took a break to play football. It was a rare joy amid a difficult life on the border. 

By Emilia Sulek and Danil Usmanov

July was a rare time of joy in Kök-Tash, a small village in the Leilek district of Batken region in southern Kyrgyzstan, a mountainous country in Central Asia. That month, a football tournament was held, a tournament unique in the country. At the foot of the mountains, Kyrgyz women wearing hijabs and sneakers played football, forgetting about the sorrows of daily life at the Kyrgyz-Tajik border.

Want to read more?
Subscribe for full access.

Subscribe
Already a subscriber?

The Authors

Emilia Sulek is a journalist, writer and a scholar of Asia, currently based in Switzerland. Her book about the caterpillar fungus boom in Tibet was published by Amsterdam University Press. 

Danil Usmanov is documentary photographer. He is based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and covers the Central Asian region.

Leads
What Does Nepal Want From China?
Leads
Hun Manet’s Cambodia?