My previous post,’ Corridor of Uncertainty’, was more apt than I like to think. I have just followed up on some research about the Afghanistan Women’s cricket team. I was hoping to find some good news about their participation in the Asia Cup.
My hopes were dashed when I discovered that they had not been allowed to compete. Neither had the women’s team from Iran. Both entries had been blocked by ‘concerns’ of their respective governments. I backtracked to the original article I had found on the UK Forces Afghanistan blog (link at the bottom of this page) and read of their hope and enthusiasm and suddenly the poem I will write began to take shape.
How many times must the dreams of these young women be postponed, or, at worst, trodden into the dust? Hopes for careers, for a place in the global arena as athletes, or for even more basic needs, such as education, health care, the ability to hold an opinion, to be heard, to walk the streets with their dignity in tact.
The cricket poem is all the more poignant now – where before it was a minor celebration, now it will be a lament.
Sally J Blackmore's Blog 
We are so lucky here. I am saddened when our young women in the west forget or don’t know what a battle there has been throughout history to have better rights. To gain respect should not mean we have to be silent and unseen. Conversely, neither should it mean we must be loud and out there at every opportunity.Life’s about balance.
I agree Jill, balance is the thing but sometimes it is the hardest thing to achieve