Breaking Through: Girls' Soccer in Jordan - Al-Monitor: The Middle Eastʼs leading independent news source since 2012

Dozens of international women soccer players are trekking across Jordan by foot, to help expose young Jordanian girls to the game. The ultimate goal is to level the playing field between male and female athletes.

Druze women empowered through sports

Yuval Avivi

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

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

Rasha Mahmoud

Female Palestinian football referee Yasmeen Nayroukh, 29, the only one accredited to run all-male games in the West Bank, prepares before a local soccer match in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank February 26, 2018. Picture taken March 26, 2018. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma - RC1FE9E2BD90

Palestinian female referee now wants to officiate on global field

Ahmad Melhem

In Ramallah, reporting on politics

A member of the Palestinian national women's soccer team leans on a fence during a training session in the West Bank town of Bethlehem February 20, 2007. Some 18 Palestinian athletes make up the women's national team that was founded in 2003 and joined FIFA in the summer of 2006. Picture taken February 20, 2007. REUTERS/Eliana Aponte (WEST BANK) - RTR1MNTR

Female athletes keep ball rolling in Palestine

Aziza Nofal