With cuts, pulls and drives, KU girls knock misogyny out of the park

Karachi

It was just before the start of the new academic year at the University of Karachi (KU), when students including girls were beaten up by activists of a religious party for playing cricket to kill time.

But behold, the varsity’s Valika ground known for its annual cricket tournaments was abuzz with girls swinging bats and running forward to catch the red-taped ball, on Wednesday.

It was for the first time that girls were participating in a full-fledged tournament, organised by the All Pakistan Muttahida Students Organisation (APMSO) annually.

As spectators wished for the temperature to cool down, the girls appeared to not care much about sweating it off, as they assembled themselves and played in different groups on newly formed pitches.

While the players themselves were charged for the matches, a sizeable crowd also gathered to cheer them on in full spirit

Students set to cheer their respective departments sat in what could be dubbed a pavilion and chanted slogans to boost the spirits of their teams.

Set to kick off at 10am, a delay in the first match between the Islamic Learning and Women’ Studies departments did not do much loss as the team captains made the most of the time working on their strategy.

“Don’t wait for the ball to land in you hand, gage its speed and direction as you run toward it and don’t worry about falling down,” shouted one of the fielders in the Women’ Studies team.

On the other side of the ground, a player from the rival department reminded her team that they needed ‘hitters’ not ‘runners’, The foresight indeed worked as the captain, Uzma, led the first innings and made 48 runs.

APMSO KU sector organiser of the girls’ wing Rao Anum Sharif shared that although in the last event, girls did participate in one match, this time around, however, both girls and boys would have their separate finales on the same day.

“The matches have been arranged as a response to the JIT’s bashing of students for playing cricket with girls, to show them that girls have as much a right to play as boys, and as far as religion is considered, physical activity is essential for all genders so it’s pointless to have reservations against this,” she added.

There would be 12 matches to decide which teams would go to the qualifying round, out of which two each would go to the finals expected on April 16.

Three members of Pakistan’s female cricket team, which returned from the World T20 cricket tournament, and female ministers of the APMSO’s mother party were invited as guests to boost the participant’s morale up.

Clad in an Abaya Uzma Anwer of the Islamic Learning department, said that although her house was the only place she practiced, she felt no discomfort in playing on the pitch.

As some boys in a bid to mock the girls commented that the boundary line should have been closer so the teams could score some ‘fours’, a player swung her bat with enough strength to land the ball just a few steps away from them, leaving them no choice but mock their own words.