Zest for women’s soccer grows in Middle East despite conservative opposition
A youth and senior women’s teams travel to Manchester United on Friday to play in a tournament run by the Manchester United Foundation that takes place each year.
AP
A youth and senior women’s teams travel to Manchester United on Friday to play in a tournament run by the Manchester United Foundation that takes place each year.
AP
Middle Eastern women’s soccer has flourished despite the recent conservative backlash in the region, with more than 30 clubs now in existence and some 20 more set to join.
More than 2,000 players are involved in the world of women’s soccer, according to the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport’s international governing body, which says it has more than 100,000 total female participants in all age groups.
Yet the region is fighting a conservative backlash among conservative groups, many of whom see the sport as corrupting to girls and women.
In a regional council in the country’s conservative southern city of Sharjah, members voted on Monday to ban women’s soccer, and one member of the council says he feels “the whole process fell apart because of the anti-soccer vote.”
The region is home to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the United States. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are known for their hard-line conservative views. The UAE is currently home to the country’s women’s team, the National Ladies Football team, but the two countries, along with Qatar, have been the most vocal opponents of conservative, or Sharia, law in the region, in general and to women’s soccer, in particular.
Nahla Al-Wahhab, a member of the United Arab Emirates Council of Islamic Scholars, says Saudi Arabia is sending negative messages about the country. The Saudis do not appreciate the hard work required to run a women’s soccer team, especially when there is the chance to get paid less than men’s soccer and have less access to sponsorship.
“Even if women are allowed to play it’s just not good for the country,” she says. “The country needs to realize that a women’s team will be a loss in terms of its national image.”
Mohammed bin Hamad Al-Maktoum, president of the UAE Supreme Council for Women and Vice Premier and Ruler