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Women’s football in the Middle East & parts of Africa continue to have many barriers. (Getty Images)
It unifies, it divides, provides gainful employment and even gives people hope and joy in their darkest hours. Sport is a global phenomenon whose popularity and reach knows no bounds. In almost any country that you venture into, there would be some sport, (which could even be a local one) that runs in the layman’s conversation.
Sport also provides a means of bridging differences and gaps in culture, society and even political ties. Football, the most popular mainstream sport in the world, has had its fair share in all of the above. That’s in the case of men of course, because sadly, in a few pockets of the world, all possible efforts are taken to stymie such sporting movements when it comes to the involvement of women.
Discover Football, a women’s football festival in Berlin, commenced this past Sunday. In the words of Marlene, the Project’s manager: “We welcome all teams that play against the odds in spite of the difficulties they face as female football players, teams that are socially engaged and want to experience the integrative power of football.”
The Libyan women were expected to make the trip to join their sisters from other Arab countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Tunisia at the festival. But they were in for a rude shock when their FA decided to ban them from travelling citing Ramadan as the reason; this when the other Muslim countries had absolutely no problems in sending their respective teams.
The late Libyan politician Muammar Gaddafi is derided by many for his dictatorial regime and violation of human rights. Amongst other things though, he did his bit in unifying Arab and African nations, and also allowed women’s football to flourish.
The team trained in secret locations so as to keep them away from the prying eyes of the public, but it was support nonetheless. Since his fall, extremist religious groups have come to play a larger role in the Libyan polity and the repercussions are there to be seen.
Women’s football “is something we cannot have because it does not conform with Sharia law. It invites women to show off and wear clothes that are inappropriate,” said Ansar al-Sharia, the militia linked by some with the killing of the U.S. ambassador in Benghazi last September, the Guardian reported.
Salim Jabar, a popular television preacher in Libya, has called for the end of the women’s football team. “This team consists of tall, good-looking young girls, and that’s the last thing this country needs,” he said in a sermon. “For the first day that she [a Libyan woman] signed up for this team, she has sold herself and brought shame on her family,” Jabar added.
Politics, religion and gender issues when combined with sport make for a not so refreshing cocktail.
The ban on the Libyan women came despite them agreeing to the terms of the FA by wearing a blue tracksuit from head to toe as well as the hijab. They even refused to be photographed so as to not upset their association.
The women’s European championship currently going on in Sweden has given us a brilliant demonstration of the quality and skill in women’s football; so did last year’s excellent football event at the London Olympics.
File photo of China in action against South Korea. (Getty Images)
Asian teams have lagged behind a bit in comparison to their western counterparts, which is understandable. As in most other sports, Japan has led the way and China has followed.
The inaugural women’s World Cup in 1991 held in China is a fine example of how a sport can change a nation. China, which were virtually non-existent in the women’s footballing scene, have become big hitters since that World Cup. They finished runners-up in the 1999 edition and finished 4th in the 1995 edition. They were quarter-finalists in two other World Cups.
India too have been active on this front since 1997, when they took part in the World Cup qualifiers after opting to not participate in the first two World Cups. And since 2011, with a lot more backing from the AIFF, the team has been performing better.
India, Vietnam, North Korea, South Korea, Thailand and other South-East Asian companies along with the big two of China and Japan are the major Asian women footballing nations.
Further west, the report card amongst the Middle Eastern nations remains a cause for concern. Afghanistan formed a national women’s football team in 2007 after the fall of the Taliban regime. Though late starters, the country’s federation has been providing opportunities for the team to compete internationally as well as setting up training camps to improve fitness and skill levels. And the Afghan FA does not impose any sort of dress code for its players to stick to either.
The story of Shamila Kohestani is a ringing endorsement of the opportunities and advancement that sport can open up. Kohestani, at the time 19, became the captain of the first ever Afghanistan women’s football team. Between the ages of 8 and 13, Kohestani was constantly beaten and abused by the Taliban, deprived of any education and confined to her home in Kabul.
Kohestani’s involvement in football and her position as the captain of the first women’s Afghan national football team, led her to receiving the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2006 ESPY Awards in Los Angeles. During that trip to the U.S., she had the opportunity to attend the Julie Foudy Sports Leadership program in New Jersey.
While at the program, she met a teacher from Blair Academy – a leading boarding school in New Jersey – who convinced the school to provide her with a one-year scholarship. She has been called up as a key-note speaker at various institutions and has even given a TED Talk on ‘How Sports Impact the Lives of Women’.
Shamila Kohestani (L) for whom football provided an escape route away from her suffering back home. (Getty Images)
While the case of Shamila is certainly one of those endearing stories that have come out of sport, countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Libya and Pakistan have been at least allowing their players to compete though in prescribed attire, and even have Facebook pages.
Growing the game and having a women’s national team have been hindered by the systematic discrimination that all women’s sport is subject to in Saudi Arabia. The country’s Olympic Committee head Nawaf bin Faisal is quoted as saying that the committee should “not be endorsing any female participation at the moment”.
In November 2011, Ahmad Eid Al-Harbi, vice president of the Player Status Committee for the Saudi Arabian Football Federation, said of the creation of a women’s national team: “Saudi society is a very conservative one, even when it comes to men’s clubs. No one can imagine his daughter playing in front of thousands of people wearing shorts, such as in football.”
In Iran in 2008, President Ahmadinejad ordered sports officials to lift the ban on women’s attendance at football matches. Within two weeks, however, clerics had reversed the decision. In November of 2008, Iranian sports authorities claimed to be making “preparations” that would allow for women to attend the game, despite the clerical ban. To date, no significant progress on this front has been made, though it remains a topic of public discussion and political activism.
The UAE in 2009 formed a Women’s Football Committee that announced the launch of an initiative, which would hopefully culminate in the founding of a women’s national football team based on learning the basics of spreading women’s soccer, looking to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Syria and Lebanon as examples.
The Bahrain women’s football team with FIFA President Sepp Blatter. (Getty Images)
The tiny nation of Bahrain though offers a positive development in this regard. Women’s football has started to gain momentum especially after families started accepting their daughters joining football teams, which had not until recently been very common in the society.
Football knows no gender and does not distinguish between males and females as long as keenness and determination are the main motives behind the practising of the sport.
Libya’s players were distraught, with some even in tears, when they heard of their FA’s decision. Captain Fadwa al-Bahi told the Guardian that she thought the team should be held up as a model of cooperation in a country emerging from years of fighting. “This team is an example of reconciliation. We have former Qaddafi girls and former rebels, side-by-side,” she said.
Crossing the chasm, as far as women’s football in parts of Asia is concerned, to bring it on level footing with that of men continues to be a struggle in the face of some of the barriers mentioned above.
As evinced over the years, sport has continuously shown that it can open up windows of opportunity for its players. It ends up providing avenues for advancement as well as emancipation. Sport brings people together in times of strife; it ends up providing avenues to a better life. The less shackles we put in front of those who want to play, the better.
