Beyond Bend It Like Beckham: The Global Phenomenon of Women's Soccer by Timothy F. Grainey

Author:Timothy F. Grainey [Timothy F. Grainey]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2012-10-31T13:03:00+00:00

African Women Fight Cultural Barriers

Just because women's football is permitted doesn't mean it can't be abused. Two clear examples are from Uganda and South Africa. The Ugandan National Team coach, a man, was relieved of his duties in 11998 after allegations of sexual harassment of some of the players. It took two years to restart the program after that setback, but then the new administration banned married players from conjugal visits with their husbands and even barred any player from having conversations with men for two weeks ahead of an African Championships qualifier. The team did make the eight-team finals but missed the semifinals on goal difference. Interestingly, the lead administrator who instituted these controversial rules was a woman.

In South Africa, long-time coach and educator Fran Hilton-Smith discussed the difficulties she has found over the years in recruiting players due to cultural barriers among the country's many ethnic groups: "From simple things like a belief that it was unlucky for women to play before men, to more serious issues such as men starting up women's football teams because it was seen as an easy way to develop a pool of girlfriends they could use for sex and drop if the women did not comply, have all impacted on the willingness of women to play football." The South African Federation was able to largely stop the latter problem by establishing rules that there must always be a woman in a team's management, and when teams travel, men stay in one hostel building and women in another. It's ironic that in 1997, a judge had to step in and order the South African soccer body to allow women to participate in running their own sport, after males had co-opted all the leadership positions for the previous three years. However, as Hilton-Smith explains, "The main barrier to women playing in South Africa still exists, and that is, a woman's role as a wife and mother is seen as the priority, no matter how talented she is."

In Nigeria, former national team player and assistant coach Ann Onyekeynna Chiejine's parents objected to football because "they felt that football would make me so muscular that no man would want to marry me and I would end up being unable to bear children." At the 11999 World Cup, she was the only married player on Nigeria's team, with two young daughters at home. "Some feel that when you get married, that is the end of your career, and that if you play football, you won't be able to have children," Chiejine said. "I am showing that you can still play and it will not disturb you." Chiejine ended up playing while five months' pregnant at the zooo Women's African Championship and has four children in total.

Young players ultimately have the best chance to change their parents' and other adults' opinions by explaining the benefits they gain from soccer. In Namibia, where the sport is growing since being introduced to girls at schools, Belinda Mbaindjikua, a sixteenyear-old from

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