Skatistan

Empowering girls in Afghanistan through skateboarding.

Brilliant.

Skatistan has been rolling on now since 2007. I first touched the pages of their brilliant 320 page, full colour, amazingly tactile and captivating first book months ago at the very rad Antisocial Skateboard Shop in Vancouver, which happens to also female owned and operated. I'm a bit ashamed I am only posting about it now. If you've been like me and were somehow hiding in a cave on Mars for the past six years, I'd highly suggest going to their website, watching their videos, and feeling awesome about what these guys are doing.

I remember as a kid being told "girls can't do [this or that]." It made me mad and I would usually do that thing (climbing the tall tree, throwing to second from home base, push ups, algebra) as much as I could just to prove whoever said that wrong. The joy of accomplishment was immense. The sense of eurphoria and excitement from mastering something with your body and feeling an endorphine rush made all the bruises and sprains worth it. I can only imagine that under the circumstances these girls face, the joy must be x1000.

Afghanistan's Girl Skaters – Kabul 2012 from Skateistan on Vimeo.

I had words hurled at me for sure, as many girls did in North America, but none of us were ever shot at for saying: "I can do that too."

Show some support. Head on over to their store and throw down some cash for their amazing first book, or some other sweet swag.




SKATEISTAN: TO LIVE AND SKATE KABUL from Diesel New Voices on Vimeo.

Love, Love, Love...

Another amazing Kickstarter project about women and bikes!

The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan began in 1979. For ten years, the war raged on, and was considered a "Proxy War" of the Cold War. After the Soviets pulled out, the impoverished, traumatized country was ripe for the control of the Taliban. Then 911 happened. Even before this modern history, Afganistan has been in dispute and a strategic region of Britan and Czarist Russia, then the US and Stalinist USSR. Basically, no one has "won" anything in Afghanistan, especially Afghanis, with instability and unspeakable injustices still rampant, specifically towards women.

What can a caring person do to help today? There are many ways. One way Mountain2Mountain has been creating change has been through it's programs that advocate for women in sports, specifically with mountain biking.  Through empowering women on equity issues like transportation and sports, they are giving voices to women and children in conflict zones, and creating an international community of support and advocacy. They are telling stories, and creating the world they want to live in through their work. It's possible. We as human beings created this mess, and we can love and create our way out of it.

Mountain2Mountain was founded in November 2006 by Shannon Galpin.  Shannon took action on her deep conviction that all women and girls deserve the same rights and opportunities as her own daughter. She walked away from her career as an athletic trainer and used her own limited funds to launch M2M and "be the change" she wished to see in the world.

Now, this Kickstart project in question is about funding Afghan Cycles, which is a film about 12 brave women that dare to ride on the Women’s National Cycling Team of Afghanistan. This production is in association with other amazing women Sarah Menzies of LET Media, Whitney Conner Clapper of Side of the Road Sessions.

Still thinking "something should be done, but what can I do?" Here is Shannon Galpin to break it down for you.


"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing"- Leo Tosltoy