Global Team

  • Khalida Popal is an award-winning Afghan football pioneer and activist, globally recognized for her contributions to women's rights and sports development. As the founder of Girl Power Organisation and the Program and Event Director for the Afghanistan Women's National Team, she has also served as a consultant for sport-for-development initiatives, and she is the member of collation for UNHCR’s Sport Forum. Popal has dedicated her career to advocating for inclusion of women and girls with the main focus on refugee women and minorities, using sports as a tool for empowerment and change. 

    In 2007, Popal co-founded the Afghanistan Women's National Team, a pivotal moment in the country's history. During the Taliban's resurgence, she led the successful evacuation of team players, launching a global campaign that united Afghan women across the diaspora and exile in the fight for recognition of the Afghanistan women’s national team in Exile, and equal rights. Her tireless advocacy continues to challenge patriarchal norms and push for gender equality in the world of sports. 

    Popal’s advocacy work has taken her to some of the world’s largest stages. She has been a keynote speaker at notable events such as the She is Global Forum, the UN Women, United Nations General assembly (UNGA)Angel City Summit, UNESCO, UNHCR. where she has consistently raised the voices of women and fought for their inclusion in sports. 

    In addition to her activism, Popal is the author of “My Beautiful Sisters”, a gripping memoir that chronicles her journey from growing up in Afghanistan, co-founding the national team, to living as a refugee while championing women's rights globally. The memoir is a powerful story of courage, teamwork, and hope in the face of adversity. 

    Her efforts have been recognized with numerous prestigious awards, including the FIFPro Award, the Peace and Sport Special Jury Prize, Leaders in Sport U40 Class of 2019 Award, the UEFA Equal Game Award, The Lantos Human Rights Prize, and several other awards and recognitions honoring her role as a global ambassador for women's empowerment through sports.

  • Sara has specialised knowledge of marketing, PR, and communication in the start-up industry. She currently works as the marketing manager for Lyngby Boldklub and previously has worked for AB Gladsaxe. She holds a master’s degree in Political communication and Management from CBS and has working experience from  a number of start-ups. With her combination of strategic communication, project management and marketing skills she has a good foundation for raising awareness, advocacy work and branding of Girl Power.

  • Emily Bisgaard is a Danish professional, artist, and football enthusiast whose career reflects a unique blend of social impact, creativity, and leadership. Raised in Hong Kong and originally from Denmark, Emily’s multicultural upbringing has shaped her global outlook. She has spent much of her professional career in Amsterdam and London, where she has dedicated her efforts to empowering women and advancing diversity and inclusion. 

    Emily’s professional journey includes four years at Nike’s European Headquarters, where she led various projects across sustainability and DE&I. She led the Lotus Flower Program, the first of it’s kind initiative focusing on integrating refugee women into the labor market by providing them with employment opportunities. In addition, she worked in Nike Football on various projects focusing on the inclusion of women. She also worked on the Nike Footwear Product Creation Team where she led over 100 footwear projects.

    As a football player and former football coach, Emily’s involvement in the sport began at a young age, when she coached youth teams. This early experience nurtured her passion for using sports as a platform for personal development and social change. As the previous Head of Football at Project Fearless in Amsterdam, she led their first Football Program which supported girls from marginalized backgrounds in Amsterdam to build confidence, teamwork, and leadership. 

    Additionally, Emily was the Social Impact Manager at She Matters, a Dutch NGO focused on empowering refugee and migrant women find employment opportunities. Here her expertise was utitlized to create safe spaces for women to grow their skills and personal agency.  

    An artist at heart, Emily also holds a Master’s in Socially Engaged Art, from Artez University of the Arts in the Netherlands where she focused on the use of art and sport for conflict transformation and peacebuilding. Spending time in Belfast, Northern Ireland, she led Play 4 Peace, an initiative that used basketball and public art to bring together communities divided by conflict. 

    Emily Bisgaard’s career is a testament to her commitment to merging creativity, social justice, and leadership, impacting lives both on and off the football field. Her work continues to empower women, youth, and underserved communities across the globe.

  • Shabnam was born and raised in Germany . Her parents left their home country Afghanistan due to the war and sought asylum in Germany where they created a new and safe life for her family.

    Shabnam's parents dream was to get her family better opportunities,  improving their skills, get higher education and to participate positively and actively in their society. They where raised to give back to the community, whom provided her parents with a new life and shelter. 

    She has three siblings and they have all been involved in sports, especially Football, Gymnastics and dance and they are all well educated. 

    Shabnam started her soccer/football journey when she was eight years old where she played street football with the boys from her neighbourhood. Being the only girl amongst all those boys, she faced many obstacles, but she overcame the obstacles and started playing for the first female club ESV Einigkeit.

    At the age of 15 Shabnam changed club and started her journey of playing in different professional leagues in Germany.

    Ever since she was a young girl, she dreamt of playing for her home country Afghanistan. This dream came true in 2012. That year she had her debut with the National Afghan women’s football team. She will always remember her first game against Sri Lanka. She feels blessed to have her younger sister Mariam playing alongside her, in achieving her biggest dream.

    Shabnam graduated from University as a Biomedical Engineer, and is now working for Olympus within the Quality Management department in Hamburg, Germany.

    Alongside work, Shabnam coaches football to refugees & migrant Girls & women in her community. She also visits local schools across her local community, giving presentations & workshops about the importance of education and inclusion through sport in society. 

    Shabnam joined Girl Power in 2017 and is currently on the advisory board for the organisation. Shortly after joining in 2017, Shabnam launched the Germany branch of the organisation under the name of 'Girl Power Hope Fighters Hamburg'.

  • Marisa Schlenker is a volunteer with the Girl Power Germany and Girl Power global teams. Growing up in the Midwest in the USA, she developed her passion for football and followed her dreams to playing at the professional level after spending 4.5 years as a student athlete at the University of Wisconsin where she majored in political science and Spanish. She has accumulated playing experience in Sweden, Spain, USA and Germany. 

    With a master's in sport for development and conflict resolution from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) and a pending masters degree from Konstanz Universität, Marisa has been able to take on many different types of roles in the sport for development sector from program management to monitoring, evaluation and learning to learning and development facilitator.

    In 2018, as the lead researcher of the EU funded Global Goals World Cup Erasmus + project led by EIR Football, she had the privilege to work alongside Khalida, Shabnam M. and Shabnam Ruhin and starting in 2020, she joined the organisation as a volunteer with the Germany chapter to support girl power themed workshops and the delivery of the Leadership Academy in Hamburg.

    Emily’s professional journey includes four years at Nike’s European Headquarters, where she led various projects across sustainability and DE&I. She led the Lotus Flower Program, the first of it’s kind initiative focusing on integrating refugee women into the labor market by providing them with employment opportunities. In addition, she worked in Nike Football on various projects focusing on the inclusion of women. She also worked on the Nike Footwear Product Creation Team where she led over 100 footwear projects.

    As a football player and former football coach, Emily’s involvement in the sport began at a young age, when she coached youth teams. This early experience nurtured her passion for using sports as a platform for personal development and social change. As the previous Head of Football at Project Fearless in Amsterdam, she led their first Football Program which supported girls from marginalized backgrounds in Amsterdam to build confidence, teamwork, and leadership. 

    Additionally, Emily was the Social Impact Manager at She Matters, a Dutch NGO focused on empowering refugee and migrant women find employment opportunities. Here her expertise was utitlized to create safe spaces for women to grow their skills and personal agency.  

    An artist at heart, Emily also holds a Master’s in Socially Engaged Art, from Artez University of the Arts in the Netherlands where she focused on the use of art and sport for conflict transformation and peacebuilding. Spending time in Belfast, Northern Ireland, she led Play 4 Peace, an initiative that used basketball and public art to bring together communities divided by conflict. 

    Emily Bisgaard’s career is a testament to her commitment to merging creativity, social justice, and leadership, impacting lives both on and off the football field. Her work continues to empower women, youth, and underserved communities across the globe.

  • A dedicated and passionate expert in the field of communication. Armed with a degree in Communication, Media, and Culture, as well as a PhD in Social Media and Social Responsibility, she has honed her expertise over the years. With over a decade of experience in teaching communication and more than ten years of hands-on experience in the field, Dr. Tsene has become a prominent figure in the industry. Her current roles include being the Head of PR, Art, and Educational Programs at Comicdom Con Athens, the founder of the Athens Comics Library, and the managing co-director of the Digital Comics Museum. She has a proven track record of organising and curating numerous events, exhibitions, conferences, and workshops. She is also collaborating with Impact Hub Athens as a business development consultant and impact measurement expert. 

    Presently, Dr. Tsene serves as a researcher and teaching associate at the esteemed MA Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Hellenic Open University. She also teaches Applied Communications at the MA Rhetorics, Education and Humanities at the National University of Athens.  Her expertise extends to international conferences where she actively participates, sharing her insights on media, digital media, entrepreneurship, storytelling, and social impact. She is also adept at designing and facilitating workshops utilising design thinking, collaborative storytelling and team-building methodologies. 

    Notably, since 2008, Dr. Tsene has been dedicating her time to crafting and conducting educational workshops employing comics storytelling methodologies. These workshops cater to children, educators, and professionals, leaving a lasting positive impact on their learning experiences.

    The past 4 years she has been active in the field of sports event management and production of sports for social development programs, leading the Girl Power Greece team.