‘The Gymnasts of Fisherman Colony’: Three Pakistani Girls Turn Gymnastics Into an Act of Freedom

Habiba Nosheen’s documentary, executive-produced by Malala Yousafzai, Mariska Hargitay, and Trish Adlesic, opens October 23 in New York and October 27 in Los Angeles.

In Karachi, Pakistan, where the Arabian Sea sustains one of South Asia’s busiest port cities, three teenage girls are discovering an unexpected form of freedom: gymnastics.

Their names are Sonia, Kiran, and Anwara, and their ambitions are at the heart of “The Gymnasts of Fisherman Colony,” a documentary directed by three-time Emmy Award winner Habiba Nosheen. Fresh from its Tribeca Festival debut, the film opens October 23 in New York and October 27 in the Los Angeles area, with additional cities to follow.

Executive-produced by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, actress and director Mariska Hargitay, and filmmaker Trish Adlesic, the documentary follows the girls as they train for Pakistan’s National Women’s Gymnastics Competition. What begins as a pursuit of athletic excellence gradually reveals something more complicated: the courage required to imagine a future beyond the circumstances of one’s birth.

The girls live in Machar Colony, a densely populated fishing settlement near Karachi’s harbor. Home to families of Bengali heritage and other marginalized communities, the neighborhood has long struggled with inadequate infrastructure, poverty, and questions of citizenship. Some residents have lived in Pakistan for generations, yet continue to face difficulties with obtaining the official identity documents necessary for education, employment, and participation in public life.

For young girls, those barriers can be compounded by expectations about marriage, domestic responsibilities, and the limits placed on their independence. Gymnastics offers a different set of possibilities.

At the center of this transformation is the Khel recreation program, established through the work of human rights lawyer Tahera Hasan and her organization, the Imkaan Welfare Organization. Under coach Mohammad Furqan Raja, girls from the community have developed their athletic abilities, with some advancing to provincial competitions. Their progress has also required confronting bureaucratic obstacles, including documentation requirements that can prevent otherwise-eligible athletes from competing.

Nosheen, a Pakistani-born journalist and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, approaches their experiences through a perspective that is too often missing from international portrayals of Pakistani girlhood: joy.

There are cartwheels, friendships, difficult practices, and the unmistakable excitement of mastering something new. The girls are not simply symbols of resistance. They are teenagers who want to compete, improve, and enjoy the exhilaration of discovering what their bodies can accomplish.

Their determination also raises a question that extends far beyond Pakistan: How much talent goes undiscovered when opportunity is dictated by gender, economic circumstances, or legal status?

The documentary’s larger significance lies in that contradiction. These girls are pursuing something that should be ordinary, yet their participation challenges expectations that have shaped generations of women's lives. For Sonia, Kiran, and Anwara, the gymnastics floor offers more than a chance to win medals. It offers a place to discover their strength and, perhaps, the freedom to imagine what comes next.

“The Gymnasts of Fisherman Colony” opens October 23 at the DCTV Firehouse Cinema in New York and October 27 at Laemmle Monica Film Center in Santa Monica, with additional screenings to follow.

For the official trailer and screening updates, visit

The Gymnasts of Fisherman Colony official website (https://www.thegymnastsoffishermancolony.com/).