Makdelina Desta, one of the founders of the group known as Addis Girls Skate, hangs out with her friends in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Makdelina Desta, one of the founders of the group known as Addis Girls Skate, hangs out with her friends in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Edomawit Ashebir tries to block out the haters.
Every time she grabs her skateboard and goes out in public, the young Ethiopian knows she might hear some rude comments.
“My mom empowers me, but people in the street are against it,” Ashebir told documentary photographer Chantal Pinzi. “There’s a guy talking sh*t: ‘You’re an idiot. You’re causing problems for your family. You’ll never achieve anything in life. You’re a girl. What are you doing on the street?’ ”
Remarks like these aren’t uncommon when Ashebir and other members of her all-female skateboarding group go out in the Ethiopian capital.
But they won’t be deterred. They have the support of a growing skate community in the country.
And most of all, they have each other.
Ethiopia is rebuilding after a devastating civil war that ended in 2022. The capital, Addis Ababa, is changing at a rapid pace, Pinzi says, with new skyscrapers and infrastructure transforming the city skyline.
But inequalities remain and there a
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