At a rugby ground in Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city, a group of young women dressed in green shirts that read “Pakistan rugby” are practicing tackling. They tumble to the ground, not afraid of getting hurt. These are not just any players: They belong to the national women’s rugby team of Pakistan, and recently they returned from Brunei, where they played in the Asian Sevens tournament.

Women in Pakistan are still often judged by society when they choose to take up sports. This is especially true when it comes to rugby, a contact sport that’s considered manly, even though it remains largely unknown in Pakistan, where cricket and hockey rule. But the sport is gaining more visibility after these young women received a great deal of media attention in 2017, when they represented Pakistan internationally for the first time.

What most people don’t know is that the majority of these young women are from low-income families, and their sports careers have transformed their lives.

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