Our Story
Finding our footing, finding our future.
Houston Shine is made up of women displaced from their lives in Afghanistan, including players who played in the Afghan Football Federation. This is their story.
Girls and women in Afghanistan weren't allowed to play soccer until the 2000s. Women and girls who wanted to compete faced huge barriers and societal pressure not to play, but they wouldn't be deterred. When the Taliban came back to power in the summer of 2021, women athletes became targets.
"Shine" means reaching for the stars and being a light for other women – blue and white replacing red and black. Sky and hope replacing blood and war.
The global football community evacuated multiple waves of women athletes from Afghanistan in 2021. The largest group of Afghan women soccer players in the United States were resettled in Houston in the summer of 2023, without their families or systems of support. Two years later, they started Houston Shine FC to reclaim the joy of soccer and find a team again.
Key Milestones
How we got here.
2007–2021
Afghan Women's National Football Team
Beginning in 2007, Afghanistan establishes a national football program that provides an avenue into sports for women and girls. In 2010, the team plays its first official FIFA sanctioned match, resulting in the expansion of its program, including youth development. In the years that followed, women now on the Houston Shine begin their journey into the sport.
July and August 2021
Taliban takeover of Afghanistan
The Taliban seizes control of Afghanistan and outlaws women's sports. By August, there are reports of women athletes being executed.
PBS News Hour | The Fall of Afghanistan | August 16, 2021
August–October 2021
Female athletes evacuated
The international human rights and soccer communities organize multiple evacuation flights for women athletes, officials, and coaches. The first two flights include players and their families who are quickly resettled in Europe and Australia. The third flight, which departs amidst increased chaos, includes players and officials from the Afghan Football Federation, without a certain resettlement destination. The group is temporarily housed in Albania for 20 months.
Ayenda, directed by Marie Margolius | MSNBC | 2023
Summer 2023
Resettlement in Houston
Approximately twenty players are resettled in the U.S., with half of the group coming to Houston together. Shortly after, they're celebrated at a ceremony marking the first convening of the 2026 World Cup host cities focused on human rights. Without their parents for support, the players begin their lives in America. They get jobs and apartments, while also supporting their families back home. They don't have access to soccer.
April 2025
Connection
A chance invitation to a Houston Dash game ignites a plan to organize a practice for the Houston players.
May 9, 2025
Afghan Women's Refugee Team
FIFA approves the creation of the Afghan Women's Refugee Team. FIFA makes plans to hold talent ID camps for resettled players across the globe for a chance to try out for the team, called Afghan Women United, but the U.S. camp would later be indefinitely postponed.
May 18, 2025
Houston Shine FC
After nearly two years of being off the pitch, community volunteers and Harris County Commissioner Lesley Briones organize a first practice. That evening, the group decides to form Houston Shine FC, representing hope and the promise of a new beginning. The team includes women from the local Afghan community, including teenagers who are playing sports for the first time.
The Second Half, a film in production by UNTOLD | 2025
September 14, 2025
First Match
Houston Shine FC plays its first match in the Houston Women's Soccer Association fall league.
October 2025
Nonprofit status
The IRS and the State of Texas recognize Houston Shine FC as a 501(c)(3) organization. The community around the team ramps up fundraising and partnerships to expand programs that support players' development on and off the field.
January 2026
Scholarships
With funds raised over the holidays, the team sponsors scholarships for six players to enroll in intensive English classes at Houston City College and for two players to advance professional training in dentistry.
Spring 2026
Dynamo Dash Charities
Houston Shine FC begins its second season of competitive play and through a partnership with Dynamo Dash Charities, begins practicing at the training grounds for the Houston Dash.
March 31, 2026
Women's History
Harris County Commissioners Court honors the Shine as part of Women's History Month: "through courage, perseverance, and unwavering resolve, Houston Shine FC demonstrates how women's athletics can inspire hope and create pathways for opportunity on and off the field."
PBS News Hour | The Fall of Afghanistan | August 16, 2021
Ayenda, directed by Marie Margolius | MSNBC | 2023
The Second Half, a film in production by UNTOLD | 2025
Leadership
Houston stepped up.
The Shine is powered by women in the Houston soccer community. The team fills a gap in grassroots soccer programming by targeting young adult women and teenage girls who need a boost to get in the game and stick with it. Our volunteers believe in the power of soccer to change lives.
Advocate and Manager
Sarah Labowitz
Sarah Labowitz has spent her career at the intersection of human rights, public policy, and international affairs. A former official at the U.S. State Department and policy director at the ACLU of Texas, she co-founded the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights and is currently a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She previously served on the Houston Human Rights Subcommittee for the 2026 FIFA Men's World Cup. In college, Sarah was captain of the Grinnell College women's soccer team and a member of the NCAA's Student Athlete Advisory Committee for Division III. When she met the players who would become the Shine and learned that they didn't have a place to play in their new home, she set out to change that.
Head Coach
Rachel Fabre
Rachel Fabre played Division I soccer at the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a plaintiff in the Title IX lawsuit that formalized women's sports at the university. She has coached at the collegiate, youth, and high school level, starting her career as the founding coach of the Stephen F. Austin University women's varsity team. Since 2006, she has coached soccer and cross country at St. John's School, where she is known for a whole-athlete approach to developing players. Rachel is passionate about increasing women and girls' access to soccer at all levels, and about developing the game so that it supports women's physical, mental, and emotional health.