About Us

Equality League (EQL) advances gender equality in and through sport by changing discriminatory and abusive policies and practices. We tackle the worst global issues facing women and girls in three key areas: access, equality and safety.

Our core competency is training athletes to advocate. In 2020, we developed both the EQL Athlete Advocacy Training and a Youth Council to serve as its pilot group. Categories include:

• Advocacy Campaign Creation

• Athletes’ Rights as Human Rights

• Storytelling

• Coalition Building
  

Our advocacy has improved millions of lives by contributing:

• to overturning the FIBA hijab ban in 2017

• to passing the Protect Young Victims from Sexual Abuse Act in 2018

• to overturning the Iranian stadium ban in 2019

• to passing the Empowering Olympic, Paralympic and Amateur Athletes Act in 2020

• to evacuating high risk Afghan women athletes in 2021
  

Equality League’s current initiatives include:

• building a coalition to safeguard Afghan women and girl athletes who are at risk for gender-based violence by the Taliban

• supporting the Congress-appointed Commission on the Olympics and Paralympics by recommending reforms to the rules of governance for the USOPC, its national governing bodies - including USA Gymnastics - and youth clubs

• partnering on the social impact campaigns for the “LILLY” Ledbetter and “LFG” films calling for equal pay - and mobilizing the multi-sector signatories of our 2019 open letter to U.S. Soccer and FIFA Presidents calling for equal pay, prize money, investment and more

• partnering with Champion Women to close the gender gaps in college scholarships, opportunities, benefits and treatment for American women athletes; that includes nearly $1 billion in scholarships, $162 million in recruitment dollars and 200,000 fewer teams and player positions than college men receive

• developing and offering the EQL Athlete Advocacy Training online, in person or hybrid training in multiple languages

Equality League is a unique multi-generational organization featuring a Youth Council made of six sets of siblings - predominantly recruited from one Manhattan residence.

We have partnered with HBO and Creative Chaos on social impact campaigns for “The Tale”, “At the Heart of Gold” and “This Changes Everything” films; Beyond Sport to honor courageous activists; Human Rights Watch and Facebook to raise awareness for the epidemic of child abuse in sport; and Champion Women to enforce Title IX in colleges and to pass legislation that protects and redistributes power to athletes.

We endeavor to build bridges between sport and other sectors to maximize the impact of our advocacy efforts - and we are succeeding!

Described by the Equality League team as fearless, Mara’s early work in sport and human rights included organizing a group of Muslim women athletes on a bike ride across the midwestern U.S. in support of sport as a human right. She believes athletes have influential voices in the movements to end gender inequality and abuse in sport.  

After developing a campaign and network that contributed to the repeal of an international basketball rule preventing hijab-wearing Muslim women from playing, Mara invited many of the experts to form the Equality League. Adopting the winning strategy from the hijab ban, Equality League has grown into an influential community of human rights, sport, and media influencers whose combined power has resulted in successful advocacy.

Learn more in a profile piece published by Brown Brothers Harriman “Women & Wealth Magazine" found here.

WATCH FIBA Allow Hijab to learn more about the ban.