While the country has some sort of international team in 22 women’s sports, mostly those efforts are just starting off. In the 2008 Olympics, only one Afghan woman competed, in track and field, while just two competed in 2004, according to Shukaria Hikmat, head of the Afghanistan Women’s Olympic Committee.

In men’s sports, on the other hand, Afghanistan has been able to punch well above its weight, despite the war. Its cricket players are national heroes, particularly after defeating Scotland recently, and its tae kwon do team is an Asian power.

On Thursday, the women’s soccer team flies to Bangladesh for its first official international competition, a tournament sponsored by the South Asian Football Federation. “Just competing internationally will be enough of a victory,” said the team’s coach, Wahidullah Wahidi, especially since the Afghan women will be playing teams from countries where women’s soccer is well established.

The Afghan team has multiple handicaps. It is allowed to use the soccer field, inside a NATO base in Kabul, only three times a week  landings permitting. (And that only because President Hamid Karzai ordered the field made available after the team had an unexpectedly strong showing in a friendly competition against Pakistan.)

The captain is a 16-year-old high school student, Roya Noori, a diminutive striker with a ferocious kick. Four of the top players are living in America, and have had no chance to practice with the team before the tournament in Bangladesh. Even their sports clothes and shoes are a hodgepodge of assorted gear  shorts or short sleeves are not in their ensembles.