Sport builds confidence, teamwork, and physical literacy — but for decades, organised sport in Bangladesh was overwhelmingly closed to girls and young women, both by social norms and by the absence of any institutional structure to include them. NUK's Sports for Women's Empowerment program set out to change that from the inside, through research rather than appeals.
A research-led approach
Supported by the international organisation Women Win, NUK conducted an extensive research project interviewing stakeholders across sectors on the status of sport for girls in Bangladesh — coaches, federation officials, parents, and girls themselves. Rather than simply advocating in the abstract, NUK built an evidence base documenting exactly where girls were excluded and why.
What changed
That research translated directly into policy change. NUK's findings and advocacy successfully influenced the Government of Bangladesh to approve gender training for all female leadership and decision-making positions across the 64 district sports offices. Women's wings are now being established within each national sports federation — a structural element that was, until recently, notably absent.
Self-defence and physical confidence
Alongside federation-level advocacy, NUK has run direct programming for girls and young women, including self-defence (karate) training designed to build physical confidence and personal safety skills — and bicycle access programs that give girls in rural areas greater independence and mobility, including the ability to reach school safely.
Why this connects to NUK's broader mission
Sport may seem distinct from labour rights or local governance, but NUK treats it as part of the same continuum: building girls' confidence and leadership capacity early, so that the women's political and economic empowerment work captured in programs like Women's Political Representation has a stronger foundation to build on later in life.
Founder's recognition
NUK's founder, Mashuda Khatun Shefali, has been an Ashoka Fellow since 1992 — recognition that reflects the organisation's long track record of practical, locally rooted innovation, including this sport-for-empowerment work.