Organisers of Donosti Cup, which is to be held in Spain from 1-7 July, have invited these girls to take part in this competition which will see more than thirty-three teams from thirty countries show their skills.
Among them will be seventeen Nepali girls who were selected from among the hundred and thirty-five teenagers from who applied from the Mugu district, located in the western part of Nepal.
The journey so far for Team Rara, named after Nepal’s biggest lake, has been fascinating. Film-maker Bhojraj Bhat was inspired by the commitment of local girls, who kept playing soccer despite lack of proper grounds in the district.
Most of the playing areas were covered by thick snow, but that did not stop these girls to compete against each other. In 2015, Bhat made a documentary Sunakali, which introduced these young and energetic players to the rest of the world.
The governing body of football, FIFA then came with another short documentary on Nepal’s football- Meet the Himalayan Messi, which highlighted the story from Sunakali.
The never-giving-up attitude of these young girls, who continued to play despite all obstacles, warmed many hearts.
The invitation to Donosti Cup is also linked with the art of telling a great story, says Bhat, who now is the coordinator for an upcoming project of the Team Rara, which will be playing four matches in the upcoming event.
Mugu is one of the remote and least developed districts of the country. The school drop-out rate among girls is high, mostly due to early marriages. Gender-inequality is wide-spread and most girls are confined to the household chores. There is very limited, if any, an opportunity for girls to excel in anything.
Speaking to SBS Nepali, Bhat says that years of cultural and social prejudices against the girls is hard to eliminate, but that might be finally changing in Mugu.
“No one can expect football alone can bring the much-needed change. But it has definitely empowered local girls by making them more confident,” said Bhat.
These small changes, he added, will slow-down and help to reverse the unfair treatments towards the girls.
In one of the clips shown in Sunakali, local girls receive an impressive welcome in the airport after they flew back thumping another team across the country.
When the male- dominant society sees their own daughters, sisters earning a huge respect for achieving something special like this, many traditional practices against these girls gets a jolt, says Bhat.
“This then will open up an opportunity for renewed approach, allowing girls to earn more respect which they deserve,” Bhat told us.
He will be joining Team Rara in Spain and is currently in the process of filming their epic Donosti Cup journey for a documentary titled- “The Other World Cup.”
Just before ending our conversation, when asked if players are watching the current world cup- Bhat says- only when they have a spare time.
There is a chance then, Team Rara might replicate some of the magical moments of the World Cup in the Donosti Cup.
