Bangladesh tackle gender barriers to reach Women's Asian Cup

In the South Asian nation of 170 million, social stigma, family expectations, poverty and religious hardliners have long relegated women and girls to sports sidelines. The first women's football league matches took place in 2011, and the squad, known to fans as the Red and Green, have kept pressing forward despite deeply embedded prejudices. "Many more girls would have joined us if the community had been even slightly supportive," captain Afeida Khandaker told AFP ahead of her side's March 3 debut in Australia.