Indian Muslim Women Defy Sexism, Abuse To Chase Football Dream
18
December 2022
• Indian Muslim Women Defy Sexism, Abuse To Chase
Football Dream
• Taraneh Alidoosti: Top Iran Actress Who Supported
Protests Arrested On Charges Of "Spreading Falsehoods"
• Cuba Rushes To Build First Female Boxing Team, One
Of Last Nations To Do So
• Arab Women Find A Voice At Mdlbeast’s Soundstorm
Music Festival
• Pakistani Activists Express Solidarity With Iranian
Women As Protests Enter Fourth Month
• Woman Kicked Off Turkish Airlines Mid-Journey For
Nut Allergy And Stranded 2,000 Miles From Home
Compiled by New
Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/indian-muslim-football-sexism-abuse/d/128656
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Indian Muslim Women Defy Sexism, Abuse To Chase
Football Dream
Kulsum Shaikh trains young girls how to
play football in Mumbra, India. Photo: Kunal Purohit
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Kunal Purohit
17 Dec, 2022
Because of their love for the beautiful game, Fatima
Shaikh, 18, and Kulsum Shaikh, 19, (no relation) have had to endure the ugly
side of humanity.
The pair from Mumbra, a Muslim community outside
India’s Mumbai city, have encountered all manners of sexism and misogyny,
including being told by male football coaches to “not play like girls”, or
being assaulted and threatened by their families if they stepped on the pitch.
One time, Fatima’s brother repeatedly struck her with
a frying pan. Kulsum woke up one morning to find that her brother had torn her
leggings in an attempt to prevent her from playing again.
Their persistence and fortitude paid off in October,
as they realised their dreams of becoming football coaches. Fatima, Kulsum, as
well as 21-year-old Madina bi Maqbool earned their first major coaching
license, helping them take a giant step towards becoming professional football
coaches.
In October, all three women, belonging to the
“Parcham” collective that promotes football among girls, bagged their “D”
certificate, the second of a six-certificate course to become professional
coaches.
With the licence, they are now equipped to understand
player psychology, develop game techniques, analyse player performances as well
as design training sessions curated for game situations, according to the
All-India Football Federation (AIFF), the country’s top football body.
“We started with 40 girls and were down to 15 in a
month, after families started pulling out their girls thanks to taunts by their
relatives and friends about girls playing in public,” she said.
“Women are visible in public spaces here only for
domestic chores, like shopping for essentials or accompanying children to
school,” she said. “Mumbra does not allow for a space where women can enjoy a
public space in the absence of a man.”
This needs to change, said Madina. “Our aim is to not
just get girls to play football,” she said. “The problem is our women are just
not visible in our public spaces. We want to make them visible.”
Kulsum, one of the first girls to receive football
training from Parcham, who now handles the collective’s coaching sessions in
Mumbra, agreed.
“The first time I came to play, I saw how men would
gather around the ground and stare at us playing like they were at a Mela, a
fair. It was unnerving,” she said. “But slowly, we got used to it, and started
telling the girls that men will stare, no matter what we do.”
The path from athletic novices to prospective coaches
has not been easy, as the trio experienced years of hardships, from having to
sneak out of their homes to being insulted by people around them, and even
worse – facing numerous physical beatings.
Fatima used to tell her family she was in her
girls-only school preparing for a race, while she trained for football. She
even hid her Parcham jersey until one day, exhilarated by the joy of winning a
tournament, she confessed to her mum.
But instead of hurling praise at Fatima, only outbursts
of anger, threats and beatings were directed towards the young girl. When her
brother’s friend told him he saw her playing with boys, that is when he grabbed
a frying pan and hit her repeatedly, till she promised she wouldn’t play any
more.
“There are so many girls who can break out of their
circumstances like I have, if they get the right platform and the support,” she
said.
Until three years ago, she would not have been allowed
to leave home unaccompanied, nor attend school picnics because there would be
boys around, and her rare visits outside would be timed by her parents.
Like Fatima, Kulsum had to lie to her family for
years, telling them she had after-school English classes. She was berated by
her mother when she found out Kulsum played in public. Kulsum’s brother even
tore her leggings – preventing her from playing – claiming the clothing was too
tight.
“I thought this is what women had to do – manage the
home well, keep the family happy,” she said. “I had never thought that women
could have a life outside the house, and that even men could take care of the
house, not just women.”
“This has changed the aspirations for many girls – it
has shown them new possibilities,” she said. “Earlier, they only wanted to get
married, have children. Now, they are realising that even football can be a
career.”
Women’s representation in coaching and administration
has been abysmally low – a 2014 Fifa report revealed that of all the registered
football coaches across the world, only 7 per cent were women, of which the
number of active female coaches was unclear. This isn’t limited to football –
Indian news publication The Bridge in 2021 found that of the 27 major sports
played in the country, only 4 had female coaches.
A direct consequence was the flurry of misogyny and
casual sexism that male coaches would unleash – from chiding young girls for
being slow and “weak” to asking them to play like men.
“We wanted the girls to grow up to become confident of
themselves, not to be pushed down further with these biases,” said Kulsum. “The
girls did not just need lessons in skills alone but also in personality and
men, who didn’t understand where these girls came from, could not have done
it.”
Even as Kulsum, Fatima and Madina get ready to appear
for the next C-license certificate course, the next crop of aspiring coaches is
already bubbling to the fore.
Leading the list is 18-year-old Mantasha Ansari, who
ran away from her home in Mumbra after her parents battered her one night for
wanting to play. She went to a government centre for juveniles and refused to
return, unless her parents allowed her to play.
That courage to leave her family is part of her own
transformation that Mantasha attributed to football – from a girl who wouldn’t
let out a single squeak to the loudest voice on the pitch when the girls train.
“I had nearly given up on my dreams when I faced all
those struggles,” she said, pointing to her own journey in training to be a coach.
“Now, if I don’t talk to the girls and draw them out of the struggles, they
might give up on their dreams forever.”
Source: Scmp.Com
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Taraneh Alidoosti: Top Iran Actress Who Supported
Protests Arrested On Charges Of "Spreading Falsehoods"
Taraneh Alidoosti poses for photographers
upon arrival at the premiere of the film ‘Leila’s Brothers’ at the 75th
international film festival, Cannes on May 25, 2022. (AP/File)
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18-12-22-022
Taraneh Alidoosti was detained on charges of
"spreading falsehoods" about the protest movement that has gripped
the country, state media said.
In her post, the 38-year-old took aim at some
international organisations for not speaking out against the execution of
Mohsen Shekari.
He was hanged by authorities after they accused him of
being a "rioter" who blocked a main road in Tehran in September and
wounded a member of a paramilitary force with a machete.
"His name was Mohsen Shekari. Every international
organisation who is watching this bloodshed and not taking action, is a
disgrace to humanity," she wrote.
According to a post on the state news agency IRNA's
Telegram account, she was arrested by police for failing to provide "any
documents in line with her claims".
The 38-year-old is one of Iran's most successful
actresses. She starred in The Salesman, which won an Academy Award in 2016 for
the Best International Feature Film.
But since the outbreak of the protest movement she
became a vocal critic of the Iranian government's attempts to clamp down on the
nationwide unrest, sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in
September.
In November, she attracted attention after posting an
image of herself on Instagram without a headscarf to signal solidarity with the
demonstrations.
The protest movement has become one of the most
serious challenges to the Iranian regime since it came to power in the 1979
revolution.
Authorities have already executed two men after they
were found guilty of "moharebeh" - roughly translated as "enmity
against God". Under Iranian law, the crime is defined as "creating
public insecurity" by threatening lives or property with a weapon.
Source: Bbc.Com
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-64014920
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Cuba rushes to build first female boxing team, one of
last nations to do so
REUTERS
December 18, 2022
HAVANA: Boxing powerhouse Cuba on Saturday staged a
series of official female boxing matches for the first time since Fidel
Castro’s 1959 Revolution, just a few weeks after lifting a taboo on the sport.
While women have been boxing for decades, in community
and basement gyms, they were banned from the state-dominated sports system and
competitions.
The 14 competitors in the seven fights were among 26
women already selected to receive special attention due to their promise to
compete internationally for the Communist-run country.
“I feel super proud. Winning an official competition
is a dream come true for me. We women have been waiting for this possibility
for a long time,” Eliani de la Caridad Garcia, 27 and mother of a 2-year-old
girl, told Reuters.
Garcia, who became the first woman to win a
state-sponsored match in the country, was speaking in a gym and training area
where many athletes, including male boxers, were cheering the women on.
The women now are competing for a ticket in the six
Olympic divisions en route to the Central American and Caribbean Games in San
Salvador, in June 2023.
The Caribbean island — long hailed for its top-ranked
male boxers — has won 41 gold medals in the Olympic games since Munich in 1972,
topping global charts.
But until now, it was one of a handful of countries
that did not practice women’s boxing among the 202 nations affiliated with the
International Boxing Association. Female boxers had no choice but to migrate to
reach the highest levels of their sport.
Coach Julio Cesar Morales, who for decades trained
male boxers and has now begun to work with the women, was eager to get started.
He told Reuters Cuba was hopeful women’s boxing would
achieve international results, perhaps not right away as the team was just
getting started, but in the medium term.
Source: Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2217886/sport
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Arab Women find a voice at MDLBeast’s SoundStorm Music
Festival
by Graham Berry
December 17, 2022
Emerging from their third year in Saudi Arabia, MDLBeast’s
SoundStorm Music Festival has become a first event of its kind in the country
and the self-described “loudest in the region.” With staggering 800,000
attendees it’s now the largest music festival in the world too, dwarfing world
famous events like Las Vegas’ Electric Daisy Carnival and Belgium’s
Tomorrowland by comparison. With bigger attendance numbers and broader
international appeal, the festival is arguably more important to Saudi Arabia
than Woodstock was for America in the ‘60s. Specifically for women in the
Middle East, this is an important moment. For the first time in centuries Arab
women are expressing themselves through dance, but that’s only the beginning.
They can also help throw the party as a member of production or operations.
They can even be a DJ headlining on one of SoundStorm’s seven stages. For young
Arab girls, this may be the first time ever seeing such inspiring heroines and
role models.
Speaking with several such female powerhouses, Your
EDM set out to learn more about the voice women are discovering in Saudi Arabia
through the festival. We also wanted to glean a bit about how that voice is
being received both within the country and on the international stage.
What they had to say rocked our perception of the Arab
world and encouraged us (in the West) to keep an eye on the event as it
continues to impact the culture there. If the words from the women below are
any indication, we may be witnessing a truly historic moment for Saudis.
“I love how everyone was there attending for their
favorite musician and that included many women like my friends Dorar, Kayan and
Biirdperson and my personal favorite Eli & Fur, our Saudi ladies got to
showcase to the world that they can rock the crowd better than anyone else and
they had men and women supporting them and cheering for them in the audience.”
“In truth a majority of the industry is led by men
wherever you are in the world, however women are increasingly taking on
leadership roles in the sector both internationally and regionally. I’ve personally
seen incredible growth and development of a very confident and ambitious local
female workforce stepping up into critical positions.”
Source: Youredm
https://www.youredm.com/2022/12/17/arab-women-find-a-voice-at-mdlbeasts-soundstorm-music-festival/
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Pakistani activists express solidarity with Iranian
women as protests enter fourth month
BURAQ SHABBIR
December 17, 2022
KARACHI: As anti-government demonstrations in Iran
enter their fourth month, prominent Pakistani activists and politicians have
continued to express solidarity with the Iranian women who initiated the
protests following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of
the country’s morality police.
Amini, an Iranian Kurdish woman who was visiting
Tehran, went into a coma at a police station on Sept. 13 after being detained
for not wearing her headscarf properly. She died three days later.
Her death sparked the protests which were initially
driven by women’s rights activists but have since expanded to include other
grievances against the authorities and have spread to all of Iran’s 31
provinces — the largest manifestation of dissent in over a decade — despite a
violent response from the government.
“Brave protesters aren’t giving up. We are four months
into a youth-led movement,” Benazir Jatoi, an Islamabad-based lawyer whose work
focuses on women’s and minority rights, told Arab News on Saturday. “As
neighbors and women from Pakistan who have had a history of repressive laws
targeted at women, we must show solidarity and empathy.”
Hundreds of people, including children, have been
killed by Iranian security forces and thousands arrested, leading to international
sanctions, condemnation and Iran’s removal from a United Nations women’s rights
body earlier this week.
“I condemn the way they are treating the protesters
and the kind of injustice they inflicted on the protesters,” Bari said. “I
salute the resistance in the field.”
“The Iranian women protesting in their country are
very brave. And they are not only being encouraged by us, but also from within
Iran,” Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said during an address to the UN
earlier this week. “We have seen that, time and time again, Iranians have been
very brave in their political activities, their activism, and their
protesting.”
Sharmila Sahibah Faruqui, a lawmaker from Pakistan’s
Sindh province, told Arab News when the protests were in full swing in
September that state brutality in any country must be condemned.
“It is heartbreaking to see how Mahsa Amini was
brutally killed by law enforcement authorities for not wearing a hijab,” she
said. “The voices of women must not be oppressed by the state. Women, who have
been trying to break the glass ceiling, must be empowered, not silenced by
state authorities.”
Source: Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2217691/world
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Woman Kicked Off Turkish Airlines Mid-Journey For Nut
Allergy And Stranded 2,000 Miles From Home
By Kelly-Ann Mills
17 Dec 2022
A woman was left stranded 2,000 miles from home after
being kicked off a connecting flight in Istanbul - because she was allergic to
nuts.
Business owner Hanna Olsen was on her way from
Manchester to a holiday in Cape Town with Turkish Airlines with a two-hour
stopover in Istanbul.
When the 36-year-old mentioned she'd like to read the
ingredients list for the inflight meals as she had a mild nut allergy, things
went from bad to worse, despite having no issues on her first leg of the trip.
Jewellery designer Hanna told the Mirror she always
checks the ingredients on everything she eats, as although her allergy is not
life-threatening, it can cause her to be sick, become really itchy and
uncomfortable, which is not how she wanted to spend her 10-hour flight.
"My allergy is mild; it is not airborne. I wasn't
asking them not to serve nuts or for it to affect anyone else on the flight, I
simply wanted to know so I could decide that what I was eating was safe for
me."
Hanna, from south London, said the crew came over and
told her that if she had an allergy and wanted to stay on the plane she would
have to sign to agree that the airline was not responsible if anything
happened.
"I was given a blank piece of A4 paper to sign.
They said I had to sign the form to say that I take responsibility if something
happens. It was a blank bit of paper, not a form.
Source: Mirror.Co.Uk/
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/woman-kicked-plane-mid-journey-28676548
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/indian-muslim-football-sexism-abuse/d/128656