Ban on women playing football lifted in Kuwait

Women are back in the game!
Via Kuwait Times
By Eman Goma, Staff writer, September 19, 2008

Kuwait will no longer be left behind when it comes to women football tournaments. Following a huge uproar raised by Islamist MPs in 2001, women in Kuwait were banned from playing football due to numerous reasons submitted by the MPs including that it's an aggressive sport and it would be degrading to women in addition to the fact that Kuwait is a country governed by Islamic laws, and women wearing shorts and chasing a ball in public would be an abuse to Islam. However, this ban was lifted recently, giving women in Kuwait the green light to form their football teams and compete locally and regionally.

(Image is of Afghanistan's Women Football Team via the Afghan Sports Federation. If anyone has a picture of Kuwait's Women Football Team, please send it in!)

Al-Fatat Sports Club in Khaldiya (for women) was among the first sports institutions to call out for female football enthusiasts to enroll in Kuwait's first women football tryouts in years. Kuwait Times paid a visit to the club and spent a training session with the newly formed team.

As the girls did their warm-ups and carried on with their usual practice, the team coach Sabreen Khaled, told Kuwait Times that the girls have been training for the past month and a half. She stated, "A couple of months back Al-Fatat Club was informed that football is no longer banned for women here (in Kuwait), given that we play the indoor form of football (Futsal), and not the standard 11-player squad on the field.

Futsal is the indoor form of football each team is comprised of five players, with matches played in indoor courts. "Such a decision was taken so that women will not literally be playing in public as is the case in outdoor fields for the 11-player team; and the entrance to the indoor football court would be easier to control when it comes to not allowing male spectators from watching the girls play which was one of the main reasons for banning the sport for years, but we are happy with the recent compromi
se," Sabreen said.

She elaborates, "Since we started in August, the team began growing rapidly which shows that girls and women in Kuwait needed to quench their long thirst for football and the chance has finally come." Al-Fatat Club now has enough players to form two teams; a junior and a senior team. Sabreen explains, "We now have 15 girls that made it for the Fatat Club team and we'll be dividing them up into two teams according to their ages giving them a wider chance to compete in the various local tournaments.

Al-Fatat Club is currently organizing a Ramadan tournament which is expected to attract most of the newly formed football teams in the country, and registration for the tournament has already started," she said. The Ramadan tournament will serve as an inauguration for the women's football activities in Kuwait.
Nada Al-Faris, a 22-year-old Kuwaiti, was among the first women to try out at the club and has successfully made it to the senior team.

My story with football started when I was young until I was 16 years old when I had to stop to concentrate on my studies. But now after I finally graduated from university I'm back in the football squad," she said. At Al-Fatat, Nada found the opportunity to play for an actual team because as she explained, all her previous participations were in schools.

She added, "During these years I didn't miss out on the news that we are banned from playing the game we love, and I actually took the initiative and contacted the Kuwait Football Association to inquire about the matter and was sadly informed by the association that football is an 'aggressive' sport and not suitable for women." Nada explained, "Girls here can participate in martial arts like judo, taekwondo and karate but actually it's football that is considered an aggressive sport?!

After the ban has been lifted, Al-Faris said she is enthusiastic on being able to play football in her country. "I'm ecstatic. It's beyond belief that we now have the freedom to play the game we love and have our own teams, and no matter what happens during training and what the coach says, you just go back home knowing that you are going to come back the next day and play better," she stated.

Another player on the team is Nour Al-Hajji, a high school student, who will be playing in the juniors category. Nour has been playing football since she was in the fifth grade and has decided to join a local team to be able to represent Kuwait in upcoming competitions and tournaments.

Talking about the ban Nour said, "Football is like any other sport. It's no different from basketball and volleyball and we have the right to play it. I heard about the ban and how some MPs claimed that women playing football is against the cultures and traditions of Kuwait, but I was relieved to hear that Sheikha Naeema Al-Sabah backed us up (female players) and worked hard on lifting the ban till it finally became a reality.

Nour's teammate, Ayat Abdul Rahman had a different story to share about her love for football. She has just moved to Kuwait from the US two months back and had the perception that it's only men who play football in Kuwait, but lifting the ban has proved her wrong and encouraged her to join Al-Fatat team.

She elaborates, "In the US there are many women football leagues and I was amazed and happy to find out that I can still play my favorite sport here in Kuwait and I hope the popularity of this sport grows more amongst women so that we can actually reach the point where we can compete internationally.

It seems that Ayat's payers will not go unanswered, and as Coach Sabreen concluded the training session, she mentioned that the Ramadan Tournament at Al-Fatat Club will just be a starter of upcoming competitions that the team will participate in. She affirmed, "We are looking forward to representing Kuwait in the next GCC Women's Tournament which will be held in Bahrain in the beginning of 2009, and I have faith in our team and we are definitely sure that Kuwait's women will be fierce competitors and will
make a strong comeback in this sport.