Golf: A Dream to Reality

Shagufa Habibi

Although my parents had the misconception that it is a shame for girls to go to school, my interest in playing with books and pens from a young age encouraged my sisters to enroll me in a school without informing my parents. The secret plan worked for one year, and my father eventually allowed me to go to school after refusing to pay my school expenses since our financial condition was not good.

While boys were playing volleyball, basketball, football and other sports on open courses and stadiums in Herat city, I was enjoying watching them a lot. But it is not common culture for girls to either play sport on open fields or watch live matches in open areas.   

It was a hot sunny lunch of 2014 when national TV channel broadcast that the Golf Federation established in Herat invited Golf lovers from both genders. My curiosity and interest in Golf motivated me to visit the federation. Once I received adequate information about this sport, I was totally in love with it. But the barrier was my conservative family. Day and night I was dreaming to enroll in this federation and become a golfer. I decided to talk with one of my sisters about this sport and how much I am crazy about it. At first, my sister disagreed since my enrollment in Golf would create a problem within our family, relatives and especially my brother’s family. Finally, she agreed to help me enroll in the Golf Federation of Herat, Afghanistan, but I had to respect the norm of my family and wear my hijab properly.  

My continuous golf practice twice a week in the Stadium of Herat inspired me to explore the beauty of this sport. Gradually, after several months, our team traveled to Kabul for a ten day golf training camp at the Golf Federation of Kabul, where there is a mini golf course with nine holes.  

 Finally, the climax of my life was at the beginning of 2015, when my golf team manager in Herat informed the lady golf team that one lady from Herat is invited to participate as a National Golfer in the International Tournament in Bangladesh on 5 March, 2015. It was also mentioned that the lady golfer will be chosen after her championship in the national golf competition in Herat in the upcoming week. It was a dream and indeed, the biggest dream for me to be this lady, but it was very competitive.

After a week, the team managers from Kabul arrived to Herat and organized the National Tournament. Every lady had their turn for short  and the longest short would be the winner. The sunny weather, the warm black scarf with long gown, the excessive hunger and inner fare  withered my smile but could not wither my heart and strength. It was my turn to hold the wooden golf club and make a long and perfect golf short. After a while, I found everyone was clapping at me and the completion of tournament announced me as the winner.

Fortunately, it was a great happiness for me to share this achievement with my sisters. I did not share it with my parents because none of my sisters traveled abroad previously. Eventually, my sisters and I planned my ten day trip in such a way that I would get to go to my elders’ sister home for holidays.

 In March 2015, I traveled to Dhaka, Bangladesh where I learned about Asian University for Women through the Embassy of Afghanistan. I was inspired by the compliments I heard about AUW and decided to apply for scholarship. Another climax of my life started to steadily increase when I got full scholarship for undergraduate studies at the Asian University for Women, where I received support for my idea to establish the AUW Golf Club in 2017 with the mission to increase the number of lady golfers. The AUW community inspired me to pursue my academic plans and extra-curricular activities in parallel. I participated in the Orion Group 34^th Bangladesh Amateur Golf Championship 2019 as Afghan National Golfer and President of AUW Golf Club. This tournament was organized at Kurmitola Golf Club, Dhaka Cantonment, Dhaka, Bangladesh from 15^th to 18^th January. The participants’ golf teams were from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Pakistan and Nepal. The purpose of the tournament was to improve the communication among the countries, organizers, players, ambassadors and participants.  

So, this is the sport, which is the strongest moment and turning point in my life.