Sopore, Oct 05 : For the first time ever, the girls of North Kashmir laced up their shoes not for a classroom, but for a playing field — and they came in hundreds.
Over 900 female athletes from 13 colleges and five schools across the northern region gathered on Monday for North Kashmir’s first women’s sports festival, a three-day event running from October 5 to 7 that is being hailed as a historic step for women’s participation in sports in the valley.
Calling it a moment of collective pride, Commissioner Secretary Higher Education Ram Niwas Sharma said, “This is a proud moment not only for North Kashmir, but for the whole of Jammu and Kashmir and the whole of the nation, where all our daughters are going to play on the field.”
The idea behind the festival is simple yet powerful: give girls a stage they rarely get. “We have initiated this program because girls get very less time to come out from their homes. And so we want to give them this platform,” Sharma said.
And what a platform it has turned out to be. With participation from 18 different institutions — including school-level students — the event marks the first time a local college has taken the lead in organising a women’s sports festival of this scale in the region.
“This is going to be the first women’s sports festival in North Kashmir. It will last for 3 days from 5 to 7. And we are proud that this is the first time our college has initiated this,” Sharma said.
For the athletes, the festival is more than just competition — it is a chance to dream bigger. Wishing them well, Sharma said, “I congratulate all the athletes for their participation. And I hope that they excel in their sports, in their future careers, and will become a part of the nation building.”
As the girls take to the field over the next three days, they carry with them not just the hopes of their families and institutions, but the quiet promise of a changing narrative — one where daughters of North Kashmir are no longer spectators, but players.
