Aligarh: In this hockey World Cup season, a glass ceiling looks all set to be shattered at the Aligarh Muslim University. For the first time since it came up in 1920, AMU will boast of a girls’ hockey team. And those causing this tiny revolution cannot help being kicked about it.Naseem Zehra is only 13. Till recently, she’d often fall from her bed while sleeping, dreaming most of the time that she was scoring a goal for her team, taking it to victory. Teammate Alia Rashid can’t part with her hockey stick. She carries it everywhere, even to the classroom. “What to do?” she said. “I am hooked to hockey.”Naseem and Alia are part of a groundbreaking project at AMU, an endeavor at inclusion which can open doors for Muslim girls taking up the national sport. The two, students of Abdul Basheer Khan Union High School, are members of the university’s first-ever girls’ team – a junior venture that includes students from the 10 schools within the AMU campus that's administered by its governing body.If all goes well, AMU girls could play their first match in an inter-school competition in February next year. Preparations are on, and the hockey fever has become contagious. It’s a common sight in the evenings to see a group of girls practising at the university’s ground near Sir Syed Hall under the supervision of their coach, Anees-Ur-Rehman, a former Indian international hockey player from the mid-80s and current deputy director of the AMU sports committee.Seeing the enthusiasm of their juniors, the seniors (pursuing graduation) have also taken up the game. Afreen Ali, a final year graduation student, said she recently took special permission from her hostel warden to play hockey after class.There is also the ‘cool vibe’ that comes with playing hockey, giving the girls an edge socially on campus among their peers. “Playing hockey was never on my mind until one day my brother told me that a girls’ hockey team was being formed. I decided to try it out and now am enjoying it very much,” said Naseem. “But you know what's the best part? Everyone now wants to be friends with me since they think that girls in the hockey team are cool.”AMU has boasted of many illustrious male hockey (and football) players through the decades, with former 1980s captain, Zafar Iqbal – born in Aligarh, his father was head of the Chemistry department at AMU -- being the last Olympic gold medal winner (Moscow 1980) from the university.Other stalwarts include Masood Minhaj (Los Angeles Olympics, 1932), Ahsan Mohammad Khan (Berlin Olympics, 1936), Lt A Shakoor, Madan Lal, Lateef-ur Rehman, Akhtar Husain Hayat (all of whom played in London Olympics, 1948), Jogendra Singh (Rome Olympics, 1960), SM Ali Sayeed (Tokyo, 1964), Inamur Rehman (Mexico Olympics,1968) as well as 1975 World Cup winner BP Govinda.“This is a great beginning for women’s hockey and, in particular, Muslim girls to get a chance to play the game. It will open many doors for them,” said Aslam Sher Khan, Govinda’s World Cup-winning teammate in 1975. He had a brief, fleeting sojourn with AMU, having represented the university in a North Zone championships in 1970.“You’d be hard-pressed to name a handful of Muslim hockey players at the top level. Sirf, ikkey, dukkey hi hongey,” he said, adding that Saba Anjum Karim, the 2000s Indian team mainstay and 2002 Commonwealth Games gold winner from Chhattisgarh, is probably the most well-known Muslim woman hockey player.But AMU’s mini hockey revolution hasn’t come easy. This team could take shape only after sustained efforts made over decades. In 1982, Razia Rizvi, deputy director, physical education at AMU’s women’s college, tried hard to make girls play hockey in the university but ran into a stone wall.Razia remembers her struggle. “After eight years of effort, when nothing happened, I decided to drop the idea,” she said, listing acute funds crunch, little or no support from university authorities uncomfortable with the idea of women playing -- considered a ‘man’s sport’ -- as the main reasons for the initial failure.“The previous VCs did not take much interest in promoting women in sports. However, things began to change a few years ago after Lt Gen Zameer Uddin Shah took over. The present VC Tariq Mansoor also supports girls who want to take up sports seriously,” she added.Things have begun to look up. “It’s an absolute delight to see the girls shaping up well,” smiled coach Rehman.“Initially, we were not sure how girls would respond to the idea of playing hockey but we received an overwhelming response and girls have been diligently practising since August. All of them are working very hard and we hope they will shape up as excellent players. This is just the start, but it looks good,” he said, rushing back to the middle to teach his stick-wielding stalwarts a few more tricks.

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