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Sabera Bayanne, 20, a student at the Shaolin Wushu club, carries a tube before an exercise in Kabul, Afghanistan January 29, 2017. On a snowy mountaintop to the west of Kabul, a group of Afghan girls practise the flowing movements of Wushu, a sport developed from ancient Chinese kung fu martial arts, stretching and bending and slashing the air with bright swords. In a country where women's sport is severely restricted, the Shaolin Wushu club in a part of Kabul that is home to the capital's Hazara ethnic community, is a rare exception. Sima Azimi, the 20-year-old leading the practice session, says Wushu teaches self-defence, but just as important, “it's really effective for body and soul”. Martial arts of all kinds are popular in Afghanistan, but it is a notoriously hard country for women, and the girls of the Shaolin Wushu club face regular harassment and abuse in addition to the normal dangers of life in Kabul. When possible, training goes on in a gym dominated by a poster of Hussain Sadiqi, a Hazara martial arts champion who fled to Australia in 1999 and later worked as a film stuntman. So far, all the girls in the club are Hazara, a Persian-speaking, mainly Shi'ite group who have faced a series of attacks claimed by Islamic State militants over the past year. (Photo by Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)
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