An International sportswear company has agreed to a deal to manufacture football kit with inbuilt hijab for Afghanistan female national football team, it has been reported.

The Denmark-based Hummel International released the strip on the eve of International Women’s Day, which is is the first branded national football kit ever to include a hijab as an inbuilt feature.

The new kit incorporating a hijab will allow female players in the national football team of Afghanistan to play while fully covered.

“We don’t sponsor the biggest teams in the world, but we make partnerships with teams and clubs with a story to tell, like Afghanistan,” said Christian Stadil, owner of Hummel International, told the British national daily tabloid newspaper, The Daily Mirror.

Stadil further added “We try to meet the Afghan people where they are, and right now that is by helping the women play football with or without a hijab.”

Khalida Popal, former Afghanistan national women’s team captain, added “It was a huge honour to captain my country but it was an even bigger honour to be seen as a role model and an inspiration for thousands of young girls and women in Afghanistan.”

“I think the Afghanistan women’s team shows the huge potential football has as a unifying force. I like to think that we have given a lot of women in our country fresh hope,” she added.

“I have been involved in the consultation for the design of the shirt pretty much from the outset. I wanted something that reflected the strength of the Afghan character and incorporated the very best of the country’s traditions and heritage,” she said. “I think this shirt has achieved both.”

Hummel designer Paul Fitzgerald, said “From the outset it was clear that the shirt was enormously significant. It’s a design hummel is extremely proud of.”