Pakistan's Women's Football Team Is Being Sidelined By Its Own Government

Three weeks after making history at the FIFA Series, the national squad was denied clearance to compete at the SAFF Championship. No alternative has been offered.

On April 9, at the Stade Alassane Ouattara in Abidjan, Zahmena Malik scored a goal. It was Pakistan’s first goal in any match organized directly by FIFA. She is a midfielder. She had trained in Lahore, flown to West Africa with a squad that had not played together in nine months, and put the ball in the net in front of nobody she knew, in a country she …