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WATCH: Free to Run aids women’s running in Afghanistan

Free to Run was founded by Canadian ultrarunner Stephanie Case

Stephanie Case at Tor des Glaciers Photo by: Jack Ibbetson

A recent short film by The North Face highlights Canadian ultrarunner Stephanie Case’s efforts to support women and girls in Afghanistan, who have been discouraged or outright banned from participating in sports under Taliban rule. In 2021, Case raced the 450K Tor des Glaciers ultra in Italy to raise funds for Free to Run (which is also the title of the film), the organization she founded to bring running and outdoor sport to Afghan women and girls. 

Free to Run 

Case is a human rights lawyer with the United Nations, and in 2012, she moved to Afghanistan for work. This coincided with the start of her ultrarunning career, and she began using her races to raise money for women’s shelters in Afghanistan. She learned that the women were less interested in the money she raised for the shelters and more interested in learning how to run, and how to access running in their country.

That’s where the idea Free to Run was born, Case said. “It came out of a desire and a request from the Afghan women themselves to do all of the activities that I got to do quite freely any time I wanted,” she said. Over the following years, Free to Run grew to impact five provinces across the country, including “some of the most conservative areas,” Case noted, where women and girls never would have engaged in running or other sports. 

Two Afghan women, Zeinab and Zahra, both of them Free to Run alumni and former staff members, are featured in the film. Both women spoke to the importance of running in their lives, and how it can empower Afghan women. 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Stephanie Case (@theultrarunnergirl)

“For other runners from other countries, when they run, because they have a very comfortable life, they want to challenge themselves,” Zeinab said. “But for me, as an Afghan girl, when I run, I escape from the challenges that are in my country.” She added that running and other outdoor activities can give women “the confidence to develop yourself and to be more powerful” in the rest of their lives.

The film follows Case and the Free to Run team as they prepare for the possibility of the Taliban regaining power in Afghanistan. They knew that women would lose many of their rights if this happened, but they were working to find a way to continue their running program anyway. Eventually, in August 2021, the Taliban did move back into power, and Case (who was back at her home in France) worked tirelessly as she tried to get the Free to Run team out of Afghanistan. 

Despite some uncertainty along the way after the Taliban grounded all commercial flights out of the country, Zeinab and Zahra both made it to the U.S., but their families weren’t so lucky. Now, a year and a half later, Zeinab and Zahra are still in the U.S., but the Taliban is still in control in Afghanistan. Case and the Free to Run team continue to search for ways to operate the program under Taliban rule. The organization has also expanded its reach to nearby Iraq. 

 

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Free to Run (@freetorunngo)

Tor des Glaciers 

While all of this was happening in Afghanistan, Case was training for her 450K run through Italy while still working long hours in the effort to evacuate the Free to Run team. For most people, training for such a massive race would require their full energy and attention, but Case somehow made it work, and she got to the start line in Italy in good form. She started the race with the goal of making it into the top five, but after almost a full week of running and just four and a half hours of sleep, she made it to the finish line in third overall and as the first-place woman. Case’s final time was 155 hours and six minutes, a result that beat the previous women’s course record by a whopping 30 hours. 

Case continues to train for ultras while still working to support women and girls all over the world, not just in Afghanistan and Iraq. “We definitely have a lot more work to do increasing participation and visibility of women in trail running, women on the mountains,” she said. 

To learn more about Free to Run, click here.

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