Last winter, four Afghan sisters arrived in Cumbria in freezing weather, without their beloved mum and dad or their rescue dog, Lucy. Their aim – to play for Manchester City’s women’s team. The Ghafouri sisters are all talented footballers and coaches, but their dream of playing at the top level has been thwarted over and over again – by the Taliban, by war, by prejudice and by injury.
Goal machine Mozhgan, 28, and 30-year-old Roma have so far made it on to the books at Carlisle United, the nearest club to where they were settled by the Home Office as refugees. Rozma, 32, and Resalat, 26, will join their sisters in coaching kids over the summer holidays. While they wait for Man City to discover them, these enterprising women have set up their own hair and beauty salon, 4 Sisters, in the covered market in the centre of Carlisle, where a steady stream of locals come for manicures, hair extensions and eyelash treatments.
The sisters worked nights in a local food factory for eight months to save up for the rent for their unit inside the market and for equipment. “We started playing football after watching Ronaldo playing on the TV when we were refugees in Iran,” says Resalat, speaking during Refugee Week, and as Euros mania begins to take hold in their adopted England. We couldn’t imagine a world where girls played football, but we just played anyway, in the streets for hours and hours with all the local boys.
” A teacher spotted their talent, and they were soon wa.
