In a village in Rajasthan, India, a 14-year-old girl named Nisha Vaishnav was at football practice when a family arrived to evaluate her as a potential bride. She refused the proposal. When her father later questioned why she kept going to practice, she told him: "There is no lover. I am going to play football. That is my love."
By 2024, Nisha was playing for the Rajasthan state team at the National Football Championship. Her sister Munna, who introduced her to the sport through a nonprofit called Football for Freedom, now trains younger girls and counsels them against child marriage. "Whether I am able to stop their marriage or not," Munna has said, "I want to help them become something in life, realise their dreams."
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