Iqra passion for football began young. Inspired by the 2006 World Cup despite her teacher’s claim that girls couldn’t play. Now 24, Iqra has become a symbol of excellence and change in sport, having founded a team to encourage Muslim women to play football.
“A series of left turns,” is how Iqra describes her journey as she started out organising a charity football tournament at university. At 19, Iqra captained the Somalia women’s football team and she then went on to become founder of a women’s football club for ethnic minorities called Never Underestimate Resilience (NUR).
“It is always difficult trying to prove that you have the right to be in a particular space,” Iqra says. “But I got to the point where I stopped asking for the space at the table. I just created my own table instead.” This effort led Hilltop FC, a men’s club for the Somali diaspora in northwest London, to invite NUR to merge with them.
Now Iqra works to address the statistic that more than a million girls in the UK lose interest in sport as teenagers. Her advice for starting a club: “Start now, embrace imperfection and learn along the way.” Inspirational words and actions.
Find out more about Hilltop FC and connect with Iqra on Instagram.
