Women flock to see first female football game in West Bank

[oberliner]

Al Ram, West Bank (CNN) -- The Faisal al Husseini football stadium was packed, two hours before kick off, with a noisy sea of Palestinian flags and white hijabs.

Football matches are always a big deal in the West Bank, but this game was more significant than most. 10,000 women had flocked to the stadium, on the outskirts of East Jerusalem and a mere few meters from the separation barrier that snakes around the West Bank, to watch a historic football match few would have believed possible just a few years ago: the Palestinian women's national team were to play Jordan in their first ever home international.

Both teams gave laps of honor before the start of the game to mark an occasion that is rare in the Middle East. Football is hugely popular amongst women in the region but the development of the game has largely been held back by a social conservatism that disapproves of women playing what are deemed 'men's' sports.

In Kuwait, attempts to set up a women's national team was met with outrage in the country's parliament. The move was halted after Waleed al Tabtabae, a hard line Islamist MP who chairs a committee charged with weeding out 'phenomena strange to society' decided that a women's football team was 'un-Islamic'.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SPORT/football/11/06/palestinian.womens.football.westbank/

[madrchsod]

1. oh no! christains and muslims on the same field!

what next? muslims and jews?......

[oberliner]

2. Report: Qatar would allow Israel to play in World Cup there

NEW YORK (JTA) -- Israel would be allowed to participate in the World Cup if Qatar hosts in 2022, the chief executive of the country's bid said.

Hassan Abdulla Al Thawadi, responding in an interview Tuesday with Reuters to the question about Israel's participation in the soccer world's flagship event, said that "All nations participating in the FIFA World Cup are welcome.”

Qatar, an Arab emirate on the Persian Gulf, like other Arab nations does not recognize the legitimacy of the State of Israel.

Should Qatar win the bid to host the monthlong World Cup, it would be the first major international sporting event hosted in the Middle East.

"We've got a bid that allows history to be made in different aspects, opening up the gates between the East and the West to sit and communicate," Thawadi told Reuters.

http://jta.org/news/article/2009/11/11/1009119/report-israel-can-play-fifa-soccer-in-qatar

[madrchsod]

3. maybe sports can help the process along ....

[LeftishBrit]

6. here's hoping!

[aranthus]

4. Could we please spell it futball?

My first visual was of women in helmets and shoulder pads. Also, it's a world sport, we should use the world spelling which I think is with a "u", isn't it?

Great idea, and a great advancment.

[LeftishBrit]

5. No you cannot - the Brits would consider any change in the name as SACRILEGE!

But I agree it's a great idea and advance!!!