An Equal Goal

AN EQUAL GOAL

BY PLAYING FOOTBALL FOR JORDAN IN THE WORLD CUP, TWO KING’S SENIORS BREAK A GENDER STEREOTYPE AND ACHIEVE A DREAM

BY MUNA AL-ALUL

SPRING 2017

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alking onto the ield to the cheers of 16,000 fans at their opening match of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Jordan 2016 was the moment that footballers Farah AlZaben ’17 and Jeeda Naber ’17 had always dreamed of. At Amman International Stadium, the crowd’s enthusiasm and pride was palpable as Jordanians demonstrated their support for their national team. Around the country, excitement had been building up for weeks as Jordan prepared to host the irst major women’s football competition ever held in the Middle East.

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It may have surprised some then that national fervor for a women’s football tournament was so great, particularly in Irbid and Zarqa, two of the three hosting cities, generally considered more socially conservative than the kingdom’s capital, Amman. In fact, the packed stadiums and excited crowds in these cities relected true Jordanian spirit: both welcoming to visitors and iercely proud of their own.

According to Naber, the crowds in Irbid and Zarqa were amazing: “You could feel the enthusiasm they had for us and how proud they were of us; it felt special when we played there.”

Encouraging more girls to start playing football and promoting gender equity through sports was, to AlZaben and Naber, the main attraction of Jordan hosting the World Cup. “During the World Cup we became an inspiration to younger girls to start playing football no matter what culture they come from here in Jordan,” Naber said.

“Last year we started coaching younger girls from public schools,” explained AlZaben. “We talked to them about how our lives changed after joining the national team and about our excitement for the World Cup.

support our team was getting and the effort they put into us as the years went by.”

While some changes happened gradually over time, others took place much more recently, since the conclusion of the World Cup in October.

“Prince Ali contributed a lot to those changes,” said Naber about the support the team received from Jordan Football Association (JFA) President His Royal Highness Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, a former FIFA vice president who successfully championed the lifting of FIFA’s ban on the hijab in women’s football. “After the World Cup he asked our team what we needed, and we told him that we just want to stay together as a team and continue to practice regularly because we really believe that would help our performance.”

“We used to only practice before a tournament, but now we have U14, U16 and U19 teams,” said AlZaben.

“That’s a really huge change, we never had all teams running together. Now we’re practicing all year long, even if we don’t have a speciic tournament.”

Although Jordan lost in the irst stage of the World Cup tournament, the young footballers say that the experience of representing their country in the World Cup made it all worthwhile and the challenges they had to overcome to reach the international stage has instilled in them a resiliency to handle whatever the future may throw their way.

“We travelled to many places and missed a lot of school,” said AlZaben. “We had to self-study everything when we got back. At King’s, we’re almost two hours away from practice so it was tough when we had ive practices a week before the World Cup, we would get home at 9 pm, shower and study. Our life is basically sports, studying and family. We barely have time for other things, but I feel that playing a sport has shaped our personalities in a good way.”

Naber and AlZaben have been playing football since they were seven and 10 years old respectively. Their fathers, both avid football fans, encouraged their daughters’ love for the game, which eventually led to them both joining Jordan’s national team seven years ago, which is where they irst met.

Meanwhile, keeping their grades up alongside a grueling practice schedule was the ultimate exercise in time management, and one that revealed another level of responsibility and team spirit.

“I played lots of sports when I was young, and when I started playing football I really loved it because it was different for a girl,” said AlZaben, who started out playing at a youth football academy established by her father. “But we were only two girls on the team.”

“Once I started playing, my grades actually got better,” said AlZaben. “Before the World Cup, our coach gave us more freedom on what we ate, when we slept and what we did with our free time. That independence actually made us more aware of what we should do and what would beneit us more; we took it as a responsibility towards ourselves and the team.”

Since joining the national team, Naber said that they have had front row seats to the changes taking place in women’s football in Jordan. “We saw how much more 60

BEYOND KING’S

Being surrounded by a supportive community both at home and at King’s Academy played a major role in

helping the girls prepare for the challenges of the World Cup. Headmaster John Austin and Deputy Headmaster and Dean of Students Julianne Puente were their biggest cheerleaders, encouraging them every step of the way. The girls became boarding students to reduce time travelling between school, practice and home, using the extra time to study and sleep.

Their teachers also showed tremendous understanding when it came to schoolwork.

In case they needed further proof, they saw that the whole school was behind them at their opening match.

“Hundreds of King’s students and teachers came to our irst game, all of our friends were there,” said AlZaben.

“It was amazing; you could hear them cheering us from the ield!”

According to Naber, being part of the national team, whose team members come from all corners of the kingdom and have very different cultural backgrounds and ways of living and speaking, has had a big impact on their lives.

“The nice thing about football is that it unites people,” said Naber. “I think that’s what we enjoy when we’re playing with different girls from all around Jordan.

In practice we’re all the same, we don’t have any differences.”

As a team they faced many challenges together and stood up to society’s stereotyping of women, but they believe it was worth every bump in the road.

“A girl needs to be as strong as she can, no matter what drawbacks she faces,” said Naber. “If she believes in what she’s doing that’s all the matters. It doesn’t matter what she has to do and the challenges she has to face to achieve that dream. If she has something she wants to do, she shouldn’t give up.”

“I played lots of sports when I was young, and when I started playing football I really loved it. But we were only two girls on the team.”

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