Afghan Women Footballers Revel In Freedom To Beat British Female MPs
New
Age Islam News Bureau
30
March 2022
• Iranian Women Barred From Attending Soccer Game Despite Promises
•
Turkish charity donates work equipment to disadvantaged women in South Sudan
•
Women Crucial To Achieving Comprehensive Development In Egypt: Social
Solidarity Minister
•
Women From All Over Egypt Tell Their Stories
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/afghan-women-footballers-/d/126692
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Afghan Women Footballers Revel In Freedom To Beat British Female MPs
Young Afghan women footballers
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March
29, 2022
LONDON:
Young Afghan women footballers on Tuesday enjoyed a one-sided drubbing over a
select team of British female MPs — but the score was secondary to their
freedom to play at all.
Back
home, in recent days, the Taliban have reverted to misogynistic policies. Girls
have once again been thrown out of secondary schools, and women told they
cannot board planes without a male relative.
For
members of the Afghanistan women’s youth development football team — resettled
in the UK last November after an evacuation flight funded by US celebrity Kim
Kardashian — there remains deep concern for family and friends left behind.
But
for 40 minutes, at the drizzly South London ground of non-league club Dulwich
Hamlet, they focused on what they do best in a match against the UK Women’s
Parliamentary Football Club.
“I’m
very proud of them,” Khalida Popal, an activist and former captain of the
Afghan women’s team, told AFP after coaching her charges for the game.
“They’re
practicing their human rights, and their freedom to play football, and to be
together — that’s the most beautiful thing,” she said.
“They’re
very strong human beings, knowing what they have been through, the trauma, the
violence, everything that they have witnessed.”
Former
sports minister Tracey Crouch, co-captain for the MPs, shrugged with good humor
at the final result.
Nobody
bothered keeping score after the Afghan women’s lead reached double digits.
“They’re
all really good, we’re all really bad,” Crouch said.
“But
that’s not the point. The point is that we have played this amazing game,” she
added.
“We’re
all really privileged, quite humbled, to play these girls, they’ve just been
through so much.”
The
evacuation flight to Britain brought 35 female footballers and their families,
a total of 130 people, in the weeks after the Taliban recaptured Kabul as
US-led Western forces quit Afghanistan.
After
several months off the pitch as they started new lives in Britain, the Afghan
women were just happy to be playing again, their captain Sabreyah said.
But
she turned tearful reflecting on those now chafing under Taliban rule.
“My
friends are kept home every day,” Sabreyah, who is in her early 20s and gave
only one name, said through an interpreter.
“I’m
really upset that the girls of my country can’t even get education. It is
really painful for me.
“I
faced a lot of problems to play football, but now the problems have only
increased.”
Popal,
who organized the exfiltration flight, said the young women were determined to
make a success of their new lives in Britain.
“But
they’re also missing home. They’re still in shock of what happened in
Afghanistan and why it happened,” she said.
Source:
Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2052991/sport
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Iranian
Women Barred From Attending Soccer Game Despite Promises
29
March ,2022
Hundreds
of Iranian women were barred from entering a stadium in northeast Iran on
Tuesday to watch their national team’s World Cup qualifying match against
Lebanon, Iranian media reported.
The
women were not allowed entry into the Imam Reza stadium in the holy Shia city
of Mashhad despite having tickets for the match, the semi-official Fars news
agency reported.
Not
being allowed to enter the stadium led to the women staging a protest outside
the stadium, Fars said.
One
woman, speaking to Fars outside the stadium, said: “They said that women can
get tickets and enter the stadium. We were on the website yesterday from 12
p.m. 8 p.m. so we could get tickets. All the ladies who are here have tickets.
We took leave from work, we spent a lot of money, but now they are saying women
can’t enter.”
If
women are not allowed to enter the stadium, “why did they sell us tickets?”
asked another woman.
Iran,
which had already qualified for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, defeated Lebanon
2-0. Only male fans were present in the stands, photos from inside the stadium
published by state media showed.
Iran’s
theocratic rulers have long been opposed to women attending men’s soccer
matches.
Iranian
women have been banned from stadiums hosting men’s soccer matches since shortly
after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
World
soccer governing body FIFA ordered Iran in September 2019 to allow women access
to stadiums without any restrictions.
The
FIFA directive came after a young Iranian woman named Sahar Khodayari – dubbed
“Blue Girl” for the colors of her favorite team, Esteghlal FC – died after
setting herself on fire outside a court where she feared being jailed for
trying to attend a match disguised as a man.
Iran
in January allowed some women to attend Iran’s match against Iraq in the
capital Tehran.
Critics
at the time said Iran only allowed a select number of women to attend the match
under pressure from FIFA, describing the move as a propagandist effort to
“appease” FIFA.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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Turkish
charity donates work equipment to disadvantaged women in South Sudan
Benjamin
Takpiny
30.03.2022
JUBA,
South Sudan
The
Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) has donated work equipment
to disadvantaged women in South Sudan to help them earn a better living.
TIKA
donated sewing machines and chemicals for making soap to the Women for Change
organization to help them train underprivileged women in the capital Juba.
Mary
Sebit, one of the beneficiaries and a mother of three, said the support will
help them with their jobs, which they hope will support them financially and
raise their living standards.
“This
support from TIKA is going to help us to sustain ourselves financially, and we
will remember Turkiye forever for what they did for us. The skills we are going
to learn from here will help the whole nation at the end of the day,” Sebit
told Anadolu Agency.
She
said the equipment given to them by the Turkish agency will improve their lives
once they complete their training.
Angelina
Achan, another beneficiary, said the project is very important for them because
it is going to change their lives.
“This
is something very important to us. It’s going to help us and the entire nation.
The skills we’re going acquire here are a big benefit to South Sudan, and we
appreciate the Turkish government for supporting us as vulnerable people in the
country,” she said.
Mary
Ayen, who benefited from one of TIKA’s projects last year, said she is now
stable financially.
She
makes liquid soap and sells it to people in Juba.
Ayen
said that with the skills she gained from the TIKA project, her parents are not
suffering like before, because at least they have something to eat.
“My
situation is not bad like previous years. I joined one of the TIKA projects in
2021, and I managed to learn how to make liquid soap, and this is the work I am
doing now to feed my family and I will not forget TIKA in my life.”
-
TIKA support will benefit 100 vulnerable women
Anna
Tazita Samuel, executive director for Women for Change, said their main mandate
is to empower women through entrepreneurship.
She
said the support provided by TIKA will first benefit 100 women, and afterwards
a targeted total of 500 women in Juba.
She
said TIKA’s project ensured that justice is served for disadvantaged women.
Erdem
Mutaf, Turkiye’s ambassador to South Sudan, said during the handover ceremony
of the equipment to Women for Change that women’s empowerment is one of their
priorities in South Sudan.
“With
this project, we will be donating a number of machines, a number of equipment
to the Women for Change organization. At the Turkish embassy, women’s
empowerment is one of our priorities in South Sudan. We believe that if you
support the women, you support society,” said Mutaf.
He
disclosed that these essential items will provide women great opportunities to
acquire skills and generate income for themselves and their families.
-
To achieve economic development, women must be empowered
Cafer
T. Besli, TIKA program coordinator in South Sudan, said that disadvantaged
women have a special place in their heart and their activities.
“As
the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency, we have been implementing
different projects for women throughout the years since we started our
activities in South Sudan in 2017,” said Besli.
In
2020, TIKA started a slipper and sandal making workshop as well as a soap
making workshop at the LuLu Care Women’s Center.
TIKA
also provided tailoring materials and sewing machines for the St. Vincent
Vocational Center.
Besli
disclosed that in 2021, TIKA provided tailoring, beadwork and handicraft making
materials, pottery making machines, shoe making machines, sewing machines and
embroidery machines and beadwork machines to the South Sudan Women
Entrepreneurs Association.
“Women’s
empowerment is a very important field for the Turkish Cooperation and
Coordination Agency, and we pay special attention to it in South Sudan.
Therefore, it is our pleasure to stand before you today after completing yet
another women’s empowerment project,” said Besli.
He
revealed that to achieve economic development, women must be empowered.
Besli
said that these women will learn how to make clothes and soaps, adding they
will be able to sell their products at bazaars, fairs and charity events.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
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Women
crucial to achieving comprehensive development in Egypt: Social Solidarity
Minister
29
Mar 2022
Minister
of Social Solidarity Nevin El-Kabbaj confirmed that Egyptian women play a key
role in various sectors in order to achieve comprehensive development and raise
awareness of climate issues and the transition towards a green economy.
She
added that they also occupy leadership positions in all fields, and that the
Ministry of Social Solidarity is working to enhance their economic empowerment
by providing job opportunities, closing the gender wage gap, and establishing
projects that contribute to achieving Egypt’s 2030 goals, vision, and strategy
for sustainable development.
This
came during a symposium organised by the Women’s Committee of the American
Chamber of Commerce in Egypt — headed by Manal Hussein — in the presence of
Maya Morsi — the President of the National Council for Women.
Furthermore,
the minister said that digital transformation processes are one of the
important means that help integrate women into the labour market, noting that
the ministry provides soft loans to female owners of small and micro
enterprises, and that EGP 2.4bn have been allocated to about 360,000
micro-enterprises.
She
added that the ministry is currently implementing many social protection
programmes in order to alleviate poverty and support the most vulnerable
groups, especially in poor governorates and villages.
The
minister also pointed out the importance of the Decent Life Presidential
Initiative in improving the standard of living of the Egyptian family and the
quality of life of rural communities.
Additionally,
El-Kabbaj emphasised the importance of achieving integration between the state,
the private sector, and non-government organisations in order to achieve
development goals and to prepare programmes to train women and qualify them for
the labour market.
Source:
Daily News Egypt
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Women
from all over Egypt tell their stories
Amira
Noshokaty
29
Mar 2022
At
the premises of El-Warsha theatre troupe, downtown Cairo, another workshop was
concluding. The workshop dedicated to training young women storytellers from
all over Egypt was quite an inspiration. Part of Hakayethonna project,
implemented by Gouthe Institute, the project aimed to found a women
storytelling troupe from all over the governorates of Egypt.
“The
project is one of the components of a bigger ongoing project titled ‘Outside
the Borders of the Capital,’ and we started phase one of storytelling with
director Salam Yousry in an online workshop last year that resulted in video
art from upper Egypt and a series of podcasts from the delta and Suez Canal
towns,” explained DoaaAhmed, coordinator of cultural projects at Gouthe
Institute, to Ahram Online.
The
ancient art of storytelling
Storytelling
is one of the ancient techniques that humans used to pass down social history,
wisdom, knowledge and learnings from one generation to the other. One of the
main elements of intangible heritage, as described by UNESCO, this remains one
of the simplest yet profoundest form of art ever. In the Arab world, and
especially in Egypt, the profession of a storyteller was quite popular before
the invention of radio and television. Despite being dominated by technology,
storytelling has started to make its way back into the consciousness as
humanity attempts to retrieve their right to imagination. This trend flourished
over the past decade, but became even more visible during the global
confinement when lots of storytellers held online events and the whole world
was ready to listen.
People
are trapped in their own beliefs
Due
to the demand on this workshop from all governorates, the project decided to
take it a step further and form a troupe of women storytellers from all over
Egypt. They reached out to director Hassan El-Geretly , the founder and
director of El-Warsha troupe, Egypt’s first independent theatrical troupe that
has taken the lead in reviving and mastering the ancient art of storytelling.
“They
asked me to organise a workshop for the second or third phase of their work
outside the capital. The workshop I have organised was one about transforming
the stories to tales to be told. So it was about how to tell such tales. I
worked on opening up the door of imagination, for what really captivates people
is their own belief that they are limited, therefore the only solution is to
explain that the sky is the limit,” explained Hassan El-Geretly.
“Because
I have something to say”
The
storytellers told their stories to Ahram Online and shared their passions and
lessons learned from the whole experience.
To
34-year-old Shaimaa Ahmed, from Sohag, storytelling was a tool of liberation
and self-expression. After being forced to give up on her hobbies as a child
once she hit puberty, she has been focused on her college degree since then.
After college, she focused on her initiative titled KonieRaeda that empowered
girls in vocational education. She then became a facilitator in several AUC
educational development projects. “Coronavirus led me to storytelling, for
during the confinement I was working from home and this gave me excess time to
do the things I want to do besides work. So I applied for online courses, among
which was the storytelling workshop that turned out to be more of a cultural
exchange with director Salam Yousry,” explained Ahmed. She added that she
remembered her first online session, which she had to take in the barn of her
brother’s house in the mountains so she would be away from all family members.
“The
best thing about storytelling is that it taught me that I do not have to think
what the person watching me would say about me. Before that I was always told
to go home early, or make the scarf longer, fearing what people would say or
think of me, but now I have the courage to tell them they do not have the right
to comment. I am a trainer and connecting with people is very important and
storytelling is among the techniques that enabled me to speak up. I want to
talk because I have something to say, I want to say it out loud and hear it.”
The
folk tales of Aswan Tribes
To
Randa Diaa El-Dien from Aswan, a founder and project manager of A Theatre of
Stories and Songs in Aswan, founded by Goethe Institute, learning to be a
storyteller greatly enhances her skills. She focused on intangible heritage of
several tribes in Aswan, like Basharia, which she elaborated in a children’s
play that included 45 children from all tribes, teaching them about each
other’s tribes. Story telling allowed her to tell, document and pass on to the
new generations, the folk stories of such tribes.
Starting
to say “No”
To
38-year-old HalaBadry, social work comes easy as she studied and worked in the
same field of development. Now the head of an NGO in Aswan that is focused on
improving the status of mothers and children, she became a facilitator with
El-Warsha and together they managed to train the house wives of Nasseria
village to tell their own stories in front of an audience.
“This
was a great breakthrough because those women were always reluctant to attend
our seminars let alone join in a story telling performance,” Badry laughs.
“Story telling had a huge impact on me, like Hassan El-Geretly says, on telling
your story on stage when you come down you would break a barrier and set
yourself free. It made me question everything and I started to say ‘no’ more
often and set my boundaries. Now I will use storytelling technique in family
counselling,” she concluded.
Storytelling
and Visualisation
The
storytelling workshop enabled fresh grad Youmna Merghany, from Aswan, to know how
best to narrate her story. Interested in creative writing and script writing,
she said “storytelling is very important to script writing because it helps a
lot in narrating the sequence in the right order and in visualising things.”
Telling
grandma’s war tales of Port Said
“I
joined this workshop because there is a chance that I would tell my tale and
other people’s stories and how such stories have an impact on us,” explained
Ahlam Al-Mansy, young journalist from Port said
“We
have a huge heritage of stories and we must keep remembering it. I want to tell
the stories I heard from my grandmother about Port Said during the war and how
people survived. When I walk the street and find an old French style building
and how important is, like the Italian house, that was built during the era of
Mussolini in Port Said, I want to tell the story of such building and several
others.”
“Story
telling is magic”
For
Riham Ghattas, storytelling is a tool for self-development. Based in Minya and
working in an NGO, Ghattas came to believe that story telling is an intrinsic
human element that ought to be activated.
“I
discovered that storytelling is authentic and magical to all of us. Everybody
can tell a story,” she explained.
“An
Adventure”
To
Riham Ali, a broadcast presenter and voiceover actor from Ismailia,
storytelling was a technique that she needed to enhance her work skills. “Story
telling is an adventure and I am enjoying it,” she concluded.
Source:
Ahram
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/afghan-women-footballers-/d/126692