“Why would a little girl from a South Asian/Muslim background or heritage want to be a footballer?” asks Layla Banaras, a footballer who plays for Pakistan and Lewes FC Women. “When she doesn't see anyone that looks like her doing it?”
This question is at the heart of why Miriam Walker-Khan launched Brown Girl Sports [BGS], an online community dedicated to representing South Asian women and girls in sport. Miriam is a sports journalist from Sheffield who is half Pakistani. She started BGS after noticing the gap in representation in sports journalism and the lack of representation of female athletes of South Asian heritage.
“For me, working in mainstream sports media, I saw how high the bar was for telling stories, and therefore, I saw how easy it was for South Asian women in sports to not have their stories told and not represented.” She told Glamour, “So I set up Brown Girl Sports because I wanted to tell those stories and I wanted to show off how many incredible, defiant, brave, strong women there are in the South Asian community.”
Whilst strides have been made in women’s sports in Britain, it still lacks diversity, and women of colour can find themselves incredibly underrepresented at a professional level. The Athletic found that Black women made up 15% of WSL players, and Sky Sports found that of 37,000 male players in the UK, only 22 were South Asian, and 11.4% of grassroots players were South Asian women.
Launched in 2022, BGS was intended as a storytelling platform highlighting South Asian women in sports. But as the platform has grown, BGS has held in-person events, watch parties and has partnered with the LTA, Chelsea Football Club and Kick It Out, something Miriam never imagined when she first launched the page: “I only ever intended it to be a sort of storytelling platform. But I have just been overwhelmed, over the past few years, about how much support and love the platform has received.”
“It has grown from this online storytelling platform to this offline community of so many different South Asian women, and for some people, it's the first time they see themselves represented.” Walker-Khan continued, “I remember we had a watch party last year with a football manager, and a few people came to it, and it was their first ever football watch party because it was not at a pub, which, as Muslim women, they would not go to, so I think those physical aspects have blossomed so organically. “
“What I’m most proud of is the voice that we’ve provided for people. There are various misconceptions and stereotypes around South Asian women, that we are oppressed and passive and do not have a voice. I think that has been the most important thing for me.”
“I think if you had told me growing up that I would be doing this, I could not have fathomed it.”
This year, as BGS celebrates its third anniversary, 150 members of the community came together at Stamford Bridge to celebrate the WSL’s Chelsea v Arsenal match. As part of the event, BGS will launch a brand new supporters’ club for women of colour with Chelsea Women FC and their first ever ambassadorship program with five South Asian athletes across football, tennis and cricket.
“I think it’s really important that we reach people in different sports, not just focusing on football,” Walker-Khan explained, “To be truly intersectional, I wanted to include people from different communities, faiths, and accessibility needs and we have a real mix of different South Asian women, and we wanted to show off how vast and diverse the communities within the larger community is.”
Glamour heard from the ambassadors about the importance of spaces like Brown Girl Sports.
Layla Banaras
“Sports were always on the TV at home, whether it was football or cricket, something was on. I was always doing something when I was younger, and football is the one thing that stuck, and I fell in love with it. From there, it was my dream to be a footballer, which my family backed and supported me 100% from the day I said I wanted to be a footballer.”
“In football, especially women's football, there is a lack of representation. I also feel that a lack of access to football within local communities for girls is an issue. Football is the biggest sport in the world, but it still can't be inclusive to everyone.”
“I think BGS is something little Layla would have loved to have, so I could point at someone and be like ' I want to be like her'. Hopefully, BGS becomes that platform where girls who come from similar backgrounds as us can be like I can do it because they are!”
Naomi Dattani
“Being an ambassador gives me the opportunity to reach different people, be a role model, and share my story. And hopefully inspire more people.”
“In the women’s game, more specifically, it’s all about education around sport being a career. The barriers are parents not knowing it’s a possibility and also they don’t see enough South Asian representation at the highest levels yet so we definitely need to have more conversations within the communities as well as in the sport itself with coaches and trying to find the best ways to get more girls to play in the pathways and get to the professional levels as well.”
“Being South Asian, it’s something I’ve always been aware of, even from when I was really young. Growing up, cricket was such a big part of my life, but I don’t think I realised at the time how different my experience was compared to some of my teammates.”
“My brother was a massive influence on me, we played lots of sports in the back garden, and he was the first person who said I was good at sport. He said I had good hand-eye coordination and encouraged me to join a local boys’ team at the time. Then later on in my playing career, Beth Morgan was my Middlesex captain and worked so hard with 100% effort and commitment, and now I have the pleasure of her being my coach.”
Lucindha Lawson
“Being an ambassador for Brown Girl Sport is about equality, inclusion, diversity and visibility. It means challenging stereotypes, amplifying underrepresented voices, and showing that South Asian women belong in sport at every level.”
"My biggest influence has been my younger self, wanting to prove that I belonged in spaces where I didn’t always see people who looked like me or shared my lived experience. Supportive coaches and teammates later reinforced that sport can be a powerful tool for building confidence and creating opportunities.
“The main challenges are access and progression, including clear pathways and funding, as well as representation in leadership. For women from ethnic minority and disabled backgrounds, unconscious bias and a lack of visible role models can still limit opportunities. Inclusion needs to go beyond participation and into decision-making spaces.”
Asmita Ale
“My family was a huge influence on me getting into sports. We were always really active growing up, and sports were encouraged at home. I also have an older brother who’s two years older than me and was always playing sports, so I naturally wanted to copy him. That quickly turned competitive, and that’s where my love for football really started.”
“For me, being an ambassador for BGS means a lot, and I think it's about representing, using my platform in a positive way, and hopefully helping younger brown girls see that there is a place for them in sport if they want it. In women’s football, I think a lot of girls from minority backgrounds don’t always have the same opportunities or support, and sometimes there are cultural expectations that make choosing sport feel harder. Not seeing people like yourself in professional spaces can also be discouraging, which is why visibility and initiatives like BGS are important.”
Eden Silva
“It means a lot that we can all come together collectively as a group of young girls from an ethnic minority background and really try to encourage other young girls to get involved in sport! I hope we can inspire them to pursue whatever dream they may have.”
“Unfortunately, there aren’t too many girls from an ethnic background in the UK involved in tennis at the moment, and I’d like to be able to use the platform I have to get girls like me playing and even having fun with it if they didn’t want to pursue it to a professional level. Tennis is a very elitist sport, so it can be slightly intimidating and daunting knowing where to start or who to turn to for advice, so with BGS, I’d like to show them there’s a way in for everyone.
“My main influence for sure has been my parents! Without them, I would have never started tennis. They took me to my local tennis club around the corner from our house and got me playing at a very young age. My dad travelled the world with me and did everything he could to give me the best coaching and play at the best tournaments. So I give full credit to them for showing me the determination and dedication it takes to do anything in life moving forward.”
Photographer: India Bharadwaj
Producer and creative director: Miriam Walker-Khan
Stylist: Aartthie Sashi Mahakuperan
Stylist Assistant: Megan Bundy
Stylist Assistant: Natasha Dattani
Clothes: PINANKI
Production manager: Liz Ward
Hair: Rebecca Robinson
Make-up artists (provided by Sculpted by Aimee): Scarlett Emmanuel and Amelia Mansfield-Holly
“I wouldn't want to play without my trans teammates because that's not the team that I love.”
