Girls who skate are achingly cool, as Twin knows – we profiled all-girl skate culture for issue XV. There’s something about the carefree, rebellious attitude that’s served with clothes to match that has always rendered ladies on the board an olly or two above the rest. But they’re even cooler when the skaters are girls from Kabul, and their portraits are currently on display in a new exhibition in Qatar – a famously conservative country.

Skate Girls of Kabul | © Jessica Fulford-Dobson

Shot by photographer Jessica Fulford-Dobson, the series celebrates the energy and fearless spirit of a group of Afghan skater girls. Full of vivacious energy and bold attitude, the work won 2nd prize in the highly coveted Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize in 2014, and was named IPA’s Best of Show Exhibition 2015.

Skate Girls of Kabul | © Jessica Fulford-Dobson

The series came about through Skateistan, an Afghan charity that provides skate parks as a hook to get children from disadvantaged families back into the educational system. A few years later,  Skate Girls of Kabul remains as compelling a series as ever– we only wish we could kick flip it with the best of them.

Skate Girls of Kabul at QM Gallery Katara in Doha from 20 July to 21 October 2017

Tags: Feminism, skate girls of Kabul