In this MBM conversation, Mariyam Haider is joined by Sabah Khan, Co-Founder of Parcham - a Mumbai-based feminist organisation that champions inclusion, diversity and equality within the society. For more than a decade, Parcham has been running a football program that trains girls from marginalised communities of different religious backgrounds to become footballers and coaches.
Their football program began in Mumbra (a predominantly Muslim ghetto on the outskirts of Mumbai) and over the years has expanded across different suburban areas of the metropolis. Through this football initiative, Parcham has helped girls tackle conservatism and orthodoxy within their families and communities, and at the same time, enabled them to reclaim public spaces for themselves.
Through this episode, Sabah shares her own journey growing up in a ghetto, the impact of the 1992-93 anti-Muslim violence in Mumbai on her, reasons for starting Parcham and the journey of young Muslim female footballers over the years. This conversation focuses on how these girls often had to fight for their interest in sports with their families, tackle sexism at home and on ground, how mothers and fathers have come around and supported many on their football journeys, and what more needs to be done to support them build their lives around a sport they have come to love.
About Sabah Khan (bio republished with permission by the author)
Sabah Khan is the co-founder of Parcham, an organisation committed to a just world, respectful of diversity. She mentors youth from vulnerable communities in taking leadership towards social action through the organisation.
She was a speaker at a TEDx event, speaking about Changing the World, one friendship at a time. She is author of the book, ‘The Queen The Courtesan The Doctor The Writer : 50 Inspiring Stories of Muslims’.
Sabah has worked for over two decades with developmental organisations on issues of urban poverty and minority rights.
About Parcham Collective
Parcham is a feminist organisation, based in Mumbai, working towards a vision of ‘A just and equal society respectful of diversity and celebrating interdependence’. Our mission is geared towards empowering marginalised communities to access their fundamental rights, creating spaces for dialogue among diverse sections in society, and working with civil society towards justice and equity. Through our work, we attempt work to break stereotypes based on religion, class, caste, gender and other marginalisation.
Parcham created history with the first ever reservation by the Municipal Corporation of a sports ground for girls in the country. Parcham’s work, documented in the film ‘Under the Open Sky’ by the School of Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences has been screened at multiple venues in India and abroad.
We believe if we were able to reach out to each other, beyond the difference of religion, race, ethnicity, caste, sexuality, gender and everything aimed at dividing us, we will be able to build bonds of empathy in place of hostility and a more humane and peaceful world.
Episode notes
The Footballers of Mumbra | It Happens Only in India (National Geographic, July 2023)
In Mumbra, Girls From Ghettoised Minorities Are Kicking Their Way To Independence (Outlook, February 2023)
Documentary: Under the Open Sky (School of Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, April 2018)
Sabah Khan, Reimagining Play In: Sports Studies in India. Edited by: Meena Gopal and Padma Prakash (Oxford University Press, 2021)
Meet the Indian wrestlers taking on Modi’s establishment (Financial Times Magazine, June 2023)
Visual identity design by Sunakshi Nigam || Music by Jupneet Singh
EP22: Unfurling new freedoms through football ⚽