JACOBABAD:
Aqsa Shabbir, a keen field hockey player, is tired and frustrated because she can no longer train during the day and can’t sleep at night amid a brutal heatwave, and fears that she will not play well in a tournament at the end of June.
The 17-year-old student, who lives in Jacobabad city of Sindh, already had to overcome many obstacles like many other girls in Pakistan’s smaller cities, where exercising in public is frowned upon, and the heatwave is making things harder.
Rising temperatures are one more barrier for women and girls who want to stay active in a country where there are few training spaces available to them, apart from private sports clubs reserved for the wealthy.
A 2022 study found that the main obstacles to participating in sport in Pakistan are “religious and cultural limitations, a lack of permission from parents, and a lack of sports facilities and equipment”. Now add extreme heat, linked to climate change, to the list.
Shabbir is a member of the Star Women’s Sports Academy in Jacobabad, the only women’s sports club in the city of nearly 300,000 people. The girls have started training later in the day in a bid to beat the heat but parents are unhappy with their daughters returning home late on their own.
Shabbir is trying to look on the bright side ahead of her important tournament in the neighbouring Sukkur district. “Who knows, we may outdo other teams from other cities with relatively lower temperatures, being more acclimatised to extreme heat.”
JACOBABAD:
Aqsa Shabbir, a keen field hockey player, is tired and frustrated because she can no longer train during the day and can’t sleep at night amid a brutal heatwave, and fears that she will not play well in a tournament at the end of June.
The 17-year-old student, who lives in Jacobabad city of Sindh, already had to overcome many obstacles like many other girls in Pakistan’s smaller cities, where exercising in public is frowned upon, and the heatwave is making things harder.
Rising temperatures are one more barrier for women and girls who want to stay active in a country where there are few training spaces available to them, apart from private sports clubs reserved for the wealthy.
A 2022 study found that the main obstacles to participating in sport in Pakistan are “religious and cultural limitations, a lack of permission from parents, and a lack of sports facilities and equipment”. Now add extreme heat, linked to climate change, to the list.
Shabbir is a member of the Star Women’s Sports Academy in Jacobabad, the only women’s sports club in the city of nearly 300,000 people. The girls have started training later in the day in a bid to beat the heat but parents are unhappy with their daughters returning home late on their own.
Shabbir is trying to look on the bright side ahead of her important tournament in the neighbouring Sukkur district. “Who knows, we may outdo other teams from other cities with relatively lower temperatures, being more acclimatised to extreme heat.”
New Heading:
**Heatwave Challenges for Female Athletes in Jacobabad**
Jacobabad:
Aqsa Shabbir, a 17-year-old field hockey player from Jacobabad, Sindh, is struggling to train and sleep due to an intense heatwave. This adds to the numerous challenges she faces as a young female athlete in Pakistan, where public exercise for women is often frowned upon. Rising temperatures present another hurdle for women and girls wanting to stay active, on top of existing barriers like cultural restrictions, lack of parental permission, and scarce sports facilities. Shabbir trains at the Star Women’s Sports Academy, the only women’s sports club in a city of nearly 300,000. Training sessions have been pushed to later in the day to avoid the heat, but this causes concerns among parents about their daughters returning home late. Despite the difficulties, Shabbir remains optimistic about her upcoming tournament in Sukkur, hoping that her acclimatization to extreme heat might give her team an edge.