Iqra Ismail, raised in Southall, London, has always loved playing football. But there hasn’t always been a space for her to do so. So she created one.

In June 2019, Iqra and two of her friends created the football team NUR, ‘Never Underestimate Resilience’, a football club created for BAME women. The need was made apparent straight away. The first session they had 15 women there. Then 18, then 23, and then 40.

For this season, NUR merged with Hilltop FC to become Hilltop WFC. There were many reasons for this. Iqra had always been a supporter of Hilltop FC, and knew many connected to the men’s team. To ensure the longevity of the club, and ensure stability, the merger felt like the most obvious solution, especially as the two teams were already part of the same community.

Iqra strongly believes that the community surrounding the team is just as important as the team dynamics. They have an all BAME management team for example, and the wider community has been very supportive. What was created with NUR has never before been seen here, and maybe others didn’t think they needed to see it.

Women’s football in the UK is in general extremely white. Iqra believes that the lack of diversity is down to a lack of opportunities and that the environments created are very harsh.

Football is not only about ability, it is mental as well. Iqra herself has been made to feel “othered” in majority white spaces, and players may feel that they need to choose between being a footballer, or themselves. NUR, and now Hilltop WFC, is a safe space for female players to be able to be unapologetically themselves, in terms of the way they dress, the way they express themselves and the way they pray.

Iqra isn’t just making waves for female footballers on UK soil. Just 6 months after Iqra founded NUR, she captained the first ever Somali Women’s National Football Team, which consisted of a mix of players from Mogadishu and NUR. Iqra hopes to captain the side again, and although work has been put on the back-burner due to the pandemic, the aim is still for there to be a Somalian National Football Team for women, and for more games to be played in the future.