A Bangladeshi Woman Believes in the Power of Basketball

Ashreen is brand manager of marketing for Unilever Bangladesh Limited and shooting guard/former captain of the Bangladesh women’s national basketball team. She seeks to empower and enable women to play basketball regardless of age, ethnicity or socioeconomic status.

Growing up in Dhaka, Ashreen was introduced to basketball through her father, who organized sports events at her school. She found a group of local girls who were also interested in sport and they began training together in the evenings at the federation’s training academy. Without a proper set-up for competitive women’s basketball, Ashreen took the situation into her own hands while at North South University. She and another student recruited girls for the school’s first women’s team, and by 2012 hosted Bangladesh’s first ever inter-university women’s basketball tournament. Two years later, Ashreen was given the university’s Best Female Athlete award.

As a member of the national team, Ashreen participated in the first South Asian Women’s Basketball (SABA) Championships in 2016, and captained the Kolkata-Bangladesh friendly series in India the same year. She balances her basketball career with her work for Unilever, where she oversees marketing for the brand Surf Excel/OMO, a detergent brand with a focus on encouraging outdoor activity for children.

In Bangladesh, conservative Muslim culture often comes into conflict with the growth of women’s sports, especially relating to academics and uniforms. Ashreen is creating a platform for women of all ages and backgrounds to play basketball by spreading the sport from the more progressive capital throughout rural parts of the country, where she holds camps and clinics for girls.

Ashreen earned a BBA in Marketing and International Business and a MBA in Marketing from North South University. Outside of work and basketball, she is lead singer of the band  Silverlight. An animal lover, Ashreen hopes to one day open a pet grooming clinic with her husband.