CASABLANCA, Morocco (AP) — Their red jerseys stood out against the green pitch. Most were teenage girls. Some people had fled the war. Some had never played in an organized soccer league or set foot in a major stadium.
But when they took to the field at Larbi Zauri Stadium in Casablanca, Morocco, they made their mark Sudanese First appearance in international women’s soccer civil war The uproar comes in a country where women’s participation in sports has long been controversial.
“My goal is to promote soccer in my country,” 17-year-old team captain Noura Mohamed told The Associated Press.
“It’s a beautiful and unique feeling, because at the end of the day, I just love playing.”
Sudan’s under-17 women’s national team traveled to Morocco last week for qualifying matches. 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The inexperienced team suffered a crushing defeat against Comoros, conceding 30 goals in two games. Many of the players broke down in tears in front of 12 cheering fans after the final whistle.
They faced older, fitter and more experienced opponents. The Sudanese Football Federation was unable to assemble a senior women’s team in time, so they joined a younger team to avoid losing their place in the qualifiers. They just started training a few weeks ago.
“The difference between us and other teams is very big. We still cannot compete at the highest level,” Burhan Tia, a veteran Sudanese soccer coach who oversees all of Sudan’s women’s national teams, said after the 17-0 loss in the opening game.
“There are many athletes from the Comoros who compete in Europe. Our team is mainly made up of female students.”
This team represents hope for Sudan’s future
The collapse of women’s soccer in Sudan Civil war breaks out in 2023. For federation officials, the debut of this young team this year means casablanca It was an important step in keeping women’s soccer alive in Sudan after years of conflict.
Manal Ali Bushra, a businessman who chairs the Women’s Football Committee, told The Associated Press: “Some have traveled long distances just to attend training. Many are separated from their families, but they still work hard and continue to pursue their dreams.”
Ali Bushra said that to support that vision, the federation is working on infrastructure projects such as the renovation of major stadiums in planned sports cities and safer regions of the country. He declined to answer questions about the women’s program’s budget or funding.
When Tia takes on the task of rebuilding a broken team, she learns the magnitude of the challenge.
“First, we had to find girls to play soccer. Then, once we found girls to play soccer, we had to make sure they were the right age,” he said. “Then I had to convince their parents to let me miss class for the training.”
With the league suspended, he took scouting trips to schools across Sudan and to neighboring Egypt, where many families had fled the war. He recruited 10 players from teams and academies in Cairo, with the rest selected from cities in Sudan.
Tia would have wanted to hire people from areas affected by conflict, such as: darfur or kordofana region known for producing Sudan’s top athletes. However, many of the girls had lost their ID cards and their ages could not be verified in accordance with international regulations. The war also destroyed transportation, turning what once took hours to travel between cities into dangerous journeys lasting days.
On the field, the players’ inexperience was evident. Some struggled with basic positioning, failed to maintain the offside line and failed to maintain tactical discipline. During games, they repeatedly looked to the sideline for instructions from coaches and assistants.
Confronting war, fatwa and conservatism
The United Nations has described the war in Sudan as the world’s worst war. worst humanitarian crisis. It began in 2023 when a power struggle between the military and paramilitary rapid support forces erupted into fighting that involved mass killings, rape, and ethnic violence. According to United Nations figures, hunger and disease have spread across the country, killing more than 40,000 people and displacing more than 14 million people.
The war has halted all sporting activities, including the women’s soccer league, which was officially established after the 2019 Progressive Revolution. President Omar Al Bashir. His three decades of Islamist rule were marked by security laws that human rights groups said restricted women’s freedoms. Even after the revolution, Abdulhai Yusif, a prominent Sudanese preacher, said the creation of a women’s soccer league was aimed at undermining religion.
“Even something as simple as a woman running, jumping, sweating, seeing her body move was seen by Bashir’s Islamist regime as producing fitnah, and in the Sudanese context was understood as sexual or moral disorder,” Liv Tonessen, a political scientist who studies gender politics in Sudan, told The Associated Press.
“So when women step on the soccer pitch, they are directly confronting the whole logic of it. They are not only in a male-dominated sporting arena, but they are also free to move within it of their own free will,” added Tonessen, a former visiting scholar at a women-only university in Sudan.
Beyond institutional hurdles, players also faced a wave of sexist abuse online. On the national team’s social media accounts, many commenters mocked their heavy defeat. Some people posted the phrase “Go back to the kitchen” in multiple languages.
Team caught up in politics
The military regime led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan allows teenage girls to travel abroad to play soccer, but the United Nations has submitted a document saying: sexual and gender-based violence by the Sudanese National Army, which he commands.
Tonnessen sees state support as a calculated effort by the military to assert legitimacy. He said that by sponsoring the team, the military is trying to show that the country is functioning normally and to align with the spirit of the 2019 revolution.
Prominent Sudanese women’s rights activist Hala al-Karib dismissed critics who say the team is being used to paint a more progressive image on women’s rights.
“The main challenge for me is the reform of the federation,” she told The Associated Press, citing the lack of investment and support for women’s soccer in Sudan.
Back on the field in Casablanca, politics, war, and debate disappear, leaving only a group of teenagers chasing a ball.
