Pakistan's First All-Women Tent Pegging Team Breaks Barriers

When Anum Shakoor charges across dusty fields with a six-foot lance in hand, she's not just competing in an ancient sport. She's rewriting the rules of who gets to play.

Tent pegging, a high-speed equestrian sport where riders gallop to pierce wooden targets buried in the ground, has been an exclusively male domain in Pakistan for generations. But Shakoor and three other women changed that last year when they formed Bint-e-Zahra Club, Pakistan's first all-female tent pegging team.

The 30-year-old created the club after a frustrating realization: women could only practice in mixed clubs and never had their own space to build community. Now, alongside teammates Eshal Ibrahim, Noor un Nisa Malik, and Sehrish Awan, she's giving female riders their own stage.

Their first competition in Rawalpindi drew thousands of spectators, most of them men in traditional turbans whose fathers had ridden before them. The women's entrance sparked something rarely seen at these events: photographers and locals rushing to capture history in the making.

"Any woman who wants to come in this sport should be encouraged so she can gain the respect she deserves," Shakoor says. "Our society cannot bear a woman's lead in any field."

Why This Inspires

The team's youngest members, both 16, practice alongside Awan, a 32-year-old mother of two competing for the first time. Their age range shows how quickly the movement is growing across generations.

Ayesha Khan, 22, has taken things even further. She joined Pakistan's under-21 mixed team at 18 and later became captain of the women's national team. In 2022, she led Pakistan to third place at an international championship in Jordan, competing against 13 countries.

Khan started riding at five, encouraged by her father and brothers who taught her the sport. "I was hit with the realization of how tent pegging is conditioned to appear masculine in Pakistan," she says. "But I used to be the only child riding a horse between adults."

The sport combines precision, speed, and courage as riders thunder across fields at full gallop. Success requires perfect timing, steady hands, and fearless horsemanship. These women have proven they possess all three.

Fatima Adeel accompanies her teenage daughter Ibrahim to every competition, keeping careful watch in crowds that remain overwhelmingly male. Her protection matters, but so does her presence as a mother supporting her daughter's dreams.

The journey hasn't been easy. Khan's national team hasn't competed internationally since 2022, despite her proven success. But the women keep training, keep competing, and keep showing up at local events where their very presence challenges assumptions.

These riders aren't just chasing wooden pegs across dusty fields. They're carving out space for every girl who dreams of galloping toward her own goals, lance held high and confidence unshakeable.