After India established a women’s cricket league to fund their players, activist, and Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai called for a greater global focus on and investment in women’s athletic talent. The 25-year-old actor has a history of fighting for women’s equality in education and in other walks of life.
Malala posted a link to a New York Times piece about India’s efforts to modernize the “gentleman’s game” by establishing a professional women’s league on her Instagram Story on Tuesday.
She wrote, “Invest in women’s sports,” and included an emoji of a trophy.
In the first half of 2020, the Malala Fund’s Game Changer series highlighted thirty women athletes who are making history in their respective fields and in their local communities. The Game Changer series, created by the Malala Fund’s digital journal and weekly assembly, discussed the many ways in which sports have improved the lives of women and girls.
The featured athletes, who ranged from seasoned veterans to rising stars in their respective sports, represented 24 different nations. The range of participants’ experiences and personal histories made for a really representative cross-section of women’s sports around the world.
Athletes as diverse as three-time Paralympic gold winner Miki Matheson and 15-year-old Tanya Muzinda, who aspires to become Africa’s first female motocross champion, were featured. Tyasha Harris, the seventh overall pick in this year’s WNBA draught, talks about what it was like to play for South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley, and readers get to meet Atefa, the first girl in Afghanistan to land a kickflip.