Manozh Noori was so passionate about becoming a soccer player, she dressed like a boy to kick a handmade fabric ball on the streets of Kabul.
"When I was a kid, that was the only way I could play, my brothers banned me from being a soccer player," she told AAP.
Then the Taliban banned women's participation in sport and when the regime took over the Afghan capital in August 2021, she locked herself in a room for a week, too afraid to leave home.
"It was the worst week of my life - I thought all the hard work I put over the years came to nothing," she said.
Ms Noori, 20, was one of more than 50 players, officials and their families evacuated to Australia, where she cherishes her freedom but misses her mother and sisters.
The striker is based in Melbourne and plays with others from the Afghan Women's Football Team, which is fighting to be recognised as a national team by FIFA.
She has also begun coaching a local side in Melbourne dubbed the Brunswick City Soccer Mums which has attracted players from all over the world, including Colombia, Mexico, Germany and Iran.
While these women never faced the kinds of barriers Ms Noori has experienced, many of them have never had the chance to play.
The Women's World Cup has seen the number of Soccer Mums players more than double, and 300 people attended a tournament at the Matildas facility in Melbourne.
Shikha Basnet, 37, started playing with the Soccer Mums in Melbourne in 2019.
"Being a mum of two kids, I hardly get time to be active other than playing soccer, so it's a big part of my life to stay active and make friends," she said.
Growing up in Nepal, soccer was "definitely not an option", so she would sneak outside to kick a ball with her brother.
In Melbourne's Nepalese community there are plenty of men's teams, but the only women's team fell by the wayside some years ago.
Thanks to the Soccer Mums program, Basnet's son and daughter are growing up with both parents playing the game.
"It's a normal thing in our household, for me to go out and play," she said.
Basnet feels many more women from migrant communities could be playing just like her, and it's a gap she hopes will be bridged.
Events like the World Cup can only help; watching a recent match, her daughter wondered aloud if boys could play as well as the Matildas.
As for the Soccer Mums' coach, Ms Noori wants to represent Afghanistan or Australia in a World Cup and be a voice for women who can't play.
"I am deeply upset about girls in Afghanistan, who can’t play, be free and continue their education or go to the park," she said.
"I want to be the voice for those Afghan women who face the same restrictions as I did, but they are under the Taliban's rule."
