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Meet Egypt’s first female coach of a men's soccer team

Fayza Haidar has become Egypt’s first female coach to train a male soccer team, breaking all norms in a conservative society like Egypt.
Egyptian referee Hanan Hassan (C-L, behind) blows a whistle while gesturing during a women football match in Cairo on June 3, 2018. - In April, the Egyptian Football Association's referee committee allowed Atalla and her female colleague Pousy Said to officiate a match in the second and third division leagues. The progress paves the way to allow women to participate in the men's premier league. But as the female referees are fighting to gain more ground, some female players actually object to their presence

A female soccer coach stands near the stadium’s benches giving her instructions to the male players passing the ball to each other. 

“It is not common in Middle Eastern society for a woman to join a soccer team and there are very few teams for women's soccer in Egypt. Men still refuse to play against women in the same stadium, let alone being trained by a woman,” soccer team captain Fayza Haidar, 36, told Al-Monitor. She recounted how difficult it was for her to be accepted as a coach of male soccer teams. “I endured criticisms, attacks and challenges, but I made it,” she said.

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