- Share This Post
- Pin It
- 0
- 0
-
Sparkle (1)
(Editor's Note: With many soccer fans still on a high from the Women's World Cup, and the WPS Playoffs taking place right now, it's important to remember that not all women have the freedom to play sports. In fact Saudi Arabia officially bans women from competitive sports and participating in physical education at state-run schools. Not only does the ban infringe on civil rights, but it has health implications as well. A majority of Saudi women are either overweight or suffer from diabetes. ~js)
Rob Wagner writes for MideastPost.com:
Shaima Sabri, 12, dreams of the day when she plays football on a stadium field of green grass with her father and brothers in a crowd of thousands cheering her on to victory.
On the first day of Ramadan after Maghreb prayer, Shaima was running barefoot through a hardscrabble patch of dirt off Madinah Road in Jeddah. Playing with the neighborhood kids, she was kicking a frayed football. Her dreams at that moment of playing before thousands were as elusive as the sweeping green fields that she hopes to play on.
“Some day I will play like Salem Aldawsari with Saudia,” said Shaima, referring to one of Saudi Arabia’s leading footballers. “But sometimes I think this is as far as I will get.”
Yet Shaima, and girls and women like her, have an unlikely ally in helping them organize football leagues: the men’s Saudi Arabian Football Federation.
