Roxy's Diary from the Middle East - Part IV
“Follow your dreams even if you don’t know what steps to take…
              Time will show you the right way!”

And the fight for women’s liberties and female recognition continues more
than ever, especially here in the Middle East. Women from every walk of life
are struggling to be heard. And I really believe that some of their prayers
have already been answered or are very close.

Have I ever told you that I play soccer? Soccer has always been my childhood
passion. During my youth while living in communist Romania, soccer
(football as it is known in Europe and in most parts of the world) was more of
a sport for the boys than for girls. Therefore, I never really got a chance to
prove my skills. I knew I was really good! How? When the boys come to you
to ask you personally to come play football with them in a match against the
nearby neighborhood team, you know you are good! I was the captain of the
team – the only crazy girl on the block to be viewed as equal by the boys!

Everywhere I have traveled, I have played soccer with whatever team I could
find, boys, girls, men, women – it didn’t make a difference to me!

Even here in Oman, in a Gulf country, I have managed to find the only
Women's Soccer Team active. This team formed just two years ago. Six
weeks into training, I found out about their existence and decided to join
them for a training session. The next thing I knew, I was on the plane to Abu
Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates playing in major competition with this
rookie team that had no competition experience whatsoever and very little
time to just learn how to kick the ball well enough to get it to another player.
Actually the team had a few players that could do a bit more than just kicking
the ball!

Most of the players are between the ages of 13 and 25, and come from Swahili
families. Even though they are Muslims, they still consider sports to be a
very important part of a girl’s life. Some of the players even traveled from
nearby cities to join the team receiving permission from their families to live
with other players or their extended families from Muscat. A few of them
work, but many of them are students either in high school or college.

Before they started playing soccer, they played other sports such as volleyball
or basketball – the most popular among young women. In general, European
football is perceived to be an aggressive game, not lady-like and it involves a
type of sports attire that doesn’t really fit the conservative culture. Thus, the
mentality towards women playing it is not very open. They need to be careful
what they wear when they play. It becomes a bit difficult when the Gulf
women soccer teams desire to play internationally. FIFA doesn’t allow them
to wear the scarf which limits their participation. However, times are
changing and so does the younger generation of women in this part of the
world and the public opinion towards women sports.

My team faced great financial difficulties. After two years, the club to which
they belong did absolutely nothing for them. Last September, at the
Ramadhan tournament in the same capital city of the Emirates, the coach
and the girls themselves had to pay from their own pocket to cover most of
the costs.

In a few days, my team is on its way to the Second Arabian Women’s Football
Tournament in Abu Dhabi. This time, I have taken the initiative to find
sponsorship. I knew it was going to be a difficult task, but the joy of seeing
these young girls playing, enjoying the thrill of competition and seeing them
giving the best of themselves as I did when I was a child in a society that
limits such talents, is more than I can ask for.

After careful consideration and strong arguments, I have convinced my own
employer, ELS Language Centers Oman to be the main sponsor for the team,
covering more than half of the money needed to pay for the equipment. Even
now, after getting media’s attention, I am finding it difficult to convince
other companies to sponsor and cover the remaining equipment. We still
need to cover 15 pairs of shoes, 15 bags and 5 footballs for practice. How sad is
that?

In the United States, companies would jump at such opportunity, but I guess
the idea of supporting women development through sports in the Gulf is still
an infantile idea which needs to develop really fast as the physical and mental
health of women in this part of the world is still very much neglected.

Where will we go from here? How shall we proceed? I guess baby steps are
still steps even if they don’t represent a major step for humanity… But in my
eyes…. they are major steps for this part of the world!
Editor's Note: Roxy Fera currently lives in Oman, and writes a monthly column for AMG
documenting her thoughts and experiences living abroad. Below is Part IV of the series.