Video: Winnipeg flagbearers at FIFA Women's World Cup escaped violence in Iraq

Playing soccer in Canada isn't always easy, but there are places where it's far more difficult. One such place is Iraq, the former home of Winnipeg teenagers Nazdar and Zainab Hilo. The girls loved soccer there, so much so that they kept playing despite the chances of being kidnapped or killed. Their family came to Canada as refugees in 2010, where it's much easier for them to play the game they love. Now, they'll be carrying the FIFA flag at the Women's World Cup games in Winnipeg next month, as Global's Shannon Cuciz reports:

Nazdar Hilo told Cuciz that when she and her sister used to play soccer in Iraq, they would have to hide every time someone came by.

"When we saw someone coming, we were going to hide until they passed and it was safe to play again," she said. "It was because some ISIS terrorists, if we were playing, they might take us or do bad things to us."

Afraid of kidnappings, their parents banned them from the sport, but that didn't stop the Hilo sisters. It did make them have to keep their soccer secret, though, as Zainab Hilo told Cuciz.

"When you played, you were always like thinking about it, like this is going to happen if you went home and your mom and dad found out you were playing soccer," she said.

After coming to Canada in 2010, the Hilo sisters have found it much easier to play soccer in Winnipeg. They play at Winnipeg's St. John's High School, and they have dreams of going much further, perhaps even representing Canada one day. Nazdar Hilo told Cuciz she hopes their chance as flagbearers is only the first time her parents get to watch her in a soccer match on the big stage.

"I hope one day I'm not the flagbearer, I get to play on the field, and my parents are going to be sitting in the same spot and watching us."