“She first caught my eye because she was wearing such a beautiful colour,” said photographer Jessica Fulford-Dobson.

“Her little hennaed hand rests gently – yet possessively – on the skateboard, and how small she seems beside it!”

This young girl was being taught to skateboard as way of getting her back into full time education

“I love her assurance: her firm, steady gaze. One feels a sense of depth in her eyes, even though she is just 7 years of age.”

Jessica’s photographs form part of a new exhibition called Skate Girls of Kabul, which is being held at the Saatchi Gallery in London this April.

She wanted to capture the life behind the young female skateboarders in Afghanistan.

Jessica got in touch with Skateistan, a charity that specialise in empowering young women through skateboarding and went along to their base in Afghanistan. The result are these beautiful portraits.

Jessica won 2nd prize in the 2014 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize with Skate Girl (pictured at top).

The young girl came from a poor family, she was being taught to skateboard as way of getting her and other girls back into full time education.

After just one year of attending the Back to School programme, the girl in the prize-winning portrait has passed her first three educational grades and is now enrolled in the national school system. She still attends Skateistan in her free time.

Check out the Skate Girl of Kabul exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery, London from 15 to 28 April 2015. More information here