It has been wonderful to welcome the school community back and to hear the excitement of reconnection in the air. We began our term by celebrating sporting successes. Abbey students are impressive in so many ways, and several represented Great Britain in different sports over the summer. We are so proud of all of them. Ione, in Upper VI, rowed for Great Britain in the Junior Women’s 8 at the Under-19 World Championships and came home as a world champion. What an inspiration.

We also focused on other female sporting role models, including the English women’s football team the Lionesses, who did so much for women’s sport by retaining their Euros title. They reminded us what it means to play with skill, courage, and joy. Their success isn’t just about trophies and goals. It’s about years of preparation, relentless hard work, and belief that their talent deserves to be seen and celebrated.

We talked about how much the Lionesses are doing to champion and popularise women’s football. However, at the same time we thought about the extent to which football is still not a level playing field. A recent study found that male footballers earn an almost unbelievable 17,000% more than their female counterparts, despite the women arguably outperforming them.

It’s not fair but of course it’s not all about money and the Lionesses are making changes on and off the pitch. Most of all, they are helping shift perceptions of women’s sport, showing millions of young girls that the pitch is as much theirs as anyone else’s.

However impressive they are, the Lionesses aren’t the women’s football team whom we picked as the most inspirational in the world just now. Nor are the Spanish women’s team, despite their impressive records in scorelines and in calling out sexism. Nor even are The Abbey’s phenomenal student footballers such as Sofia, who is balancing professional football with her Sixth Form studies.

The team we picked as the most inspirational are a national team who aren’t even allowed to play as a national team: the Afghan women’s football team. Formed in 2007, they were trailblazers, showing what women could be and do, and showing the power of sport. Their first match ended in an unfortunate 13-0 loss to Nepal, but they kept going and began to improve and to attract more attention.

And then devastatingly the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 2021. Last month, the UN announced that the situation for Afghan women and girls has become ‘increasingly untenable’ and that women are very nearly fully excluded from all aspects of life. The Taliban quickly forbade women and girls from playing sports and, weeks after they came to power, reportedly beheaded a member of the national women’s volleyball team. Moving beyond sports, women are now banned from going to school, gyms, beauty salons, and hairdressers, and it is illegal to go to public parks, on shopping trips, eat out, or even buy a coffee, without a male chaperone.

This should make us feel outraged, especially here in a girls’ school.

When the Taliban took over, the Afghan team’s captain urged her players to delete their social media and burn their football kits. Moved by her message, the Australian government evacuated 75 Afghan women athletes, including most of their football team, as the threat to their lives was so serious.

Now most of the team live as refugees in Australia. Many struggle with trauma, depression, PTSD and recurring nightmares. Some of their family members have been targeted and even killed. Yet they are still known for the joy with which they play football. By keeping doing what they love they are sending out an incredibly powerful message of courage and resistance to the world, and particularly to Afghan women and girls. After losing their homes, livelihoods and many friends and relatives, they are determined to keep their team together.

However, because they are without a state, FIFA forbids them to play international matches. They were banned from the women’s World Cup. They cannot represent their country, compete in professional matches or receive the funding they need. Rather than give up, the team joined Australia’s state league in 2022 and have since been repeatedly promoted.

What connects the Lionesses and the Afghan women’s team? Both show that success – whether in sport, in academics, in the arts, or in life – isn’t only about talent.It’s about resilience, unity, and the belief that what you’re working for matters. Here at The Abbey, we are fortunate to have opportunities they fought hard for. We mustn’t take them for granted.

As we kick off this new term, let’s take inspiration from both teams: the Lionesses, who remind us that excellence comes from commitment and teamwork, and the Afghan team, who remind us that courage is not the absence of fear, but the choice to stand strong in the face of it.

Dr Sarah Tullis, Head