Kurdish women play football despite cultural challenge

Kurdish women seek football freedom Erbil – Jaafar Nassrawi Football is no longer restricted to men in conservative Kurdistan, as young Kurdish women take to the football pitches in the autonomous region of Iraq,  despite female sports being a relatively new activity in both Kurdistan and Iraq.
Erbil, the region’s capital city, boasts eight women's football clubs, each with more than 20 players. The Erbil Girl's Club team tops the league and the club’s chairperson, Mrs Kafi Rauof Seddiq, told Arabstoday that she fields a team of 25 players.
Because of the religious and tribal nature of the Kurdish community, women are faced with cultural obstacles when joining  football teams, as the game -- especially in public -- is considered religiously forbidden for women.  In order to overcome this cultural and religious hurdle, Seddiq disclosed that she arranged meetings with the players’ families, "to convince them to allow their daughters to play football.”
Although all-women football tournaments are none too many in Kurdistan, training is taken seriously in the women's clubs under the supervision of professional male coaches. Training sessions extend to four hours, three days a week Arabstoday was informed, by Serdar Mohammed, the Erbil Girl's Club coach.
Meanwhile, the players themselves express their passion for the sport, in a community that is unused to the spectacle of women chasing after a football. Sanaa Karim, a footballer told Arabstoday:  “Playing football is the first step on the way to freedom and getting rid of the restrictions imposed upon women in our community.”
“Our passion prevents up from being negatively affected by the lack of equipment and competitions for women, or even being able to train as the pitches are reserved for the male team."
Women's football is enjoying modest support from the Kurdish government, but this is not comparable to the support offered to the male football teams, according to women's club representatives.
But the women's  game is attracting supporters despite the hurdles and its relative rarity.   Supporter Karwan Aziz said “It feels great when you see a woman doing the football tricks that a man does.”  Aziz admitted that he would love to see a game between a women's team against a man's "to see the the level of competitiveness."