GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Nelly al-Masry has covered soccer games in the Gaza Strip since early 2001, when she became the first woman journalist in Palestine to cover sports.

Masry has worked for several Palestinian newspapers, including Al-Hayat, Al-Jadida and Qatari Al-Sharq, and radio stations Al-Hurriya and Alwan. She sees no difference between female and male journalists when it comes to covering sports, as both strive to successfully cover the story and do a good job.

She told Al-Monitor, “I have not encountered many difficulties, even though I was the only female journalist who took the initiative and broke into the stadiums in a society that essentially rejects women working in nontraditional jobs and fields. But what helped me is that I grew up with sports. My father played for the Palestinian [soccer] team in the 1960s and he was a soccer coach. So some of my circumstances differ from those of most female journalists.”

Masry is a member of the media committee in the West Asian Athletics Association and the vice president of the women's sports committee in the Palestinian Olympic Committee. She hopes that more women journalists will start covering sports events from Palestinian stadiums. She said that she is mentoring some women journalists who newly joined the field of sports, to increase their presence in sport stadiums.