Bend it like Al Bandak: Palestinian women face challenges in soccer

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (CNS) - Every week as 17-year-old Marian Al Bandak takes off for soccer practice, she hears her grandmother's criticism ringing in her ears: She is wasting her time playing a man's sport; the boys won't be interested in her; she should fix herself up.

But Al Bandak, a tall, lithe outside midfielder on the Palestinian women's national team, braces herself against the harsh words and determinedly slips out the door to make it to the weekly practice. The 12th grader at St. Joseph's School in Bethlehem is not the only one on the team who faces family opposition. Sarab Shaer, 21, a Muslim, refuses to wear a veil. She defies her adoptive parents to come to practices from a neighboring village every week, taking a shared taxi through checkpoints for an almost-45-minute ride each way. The team lost its star goalie, Heba Said, who at age 22 succumbed to family opposition and quit the team when she reached marriageable age. "I don't care. I love to play, and I keep playing," said Al Bandak, whose family moved to Chile when she was 3 years old and returned two years ago. "I played when I was in Chile, and my mother and father support me. My father is a big soccer fan. Sometimes I get nervous listening to my grandmother, but then I go play and I relax. I'm crazy about soccer. I am going to play it all my life." Though it has been an uphill battle for the Palestinian Women's Soccer League since it was founded by Bethlehem University Athletic Director Samar Araj-Mousa three years ago, the league has also found some determined players, women like Al Bandak; Shaer; national and Bethlehem team captain Honey Thaljieh, 22; Nivin Kaleab 22, a religious Muslim who wears long pants and shirts and a head scarf to the practices; and Amira Hodaly, 18, a Catholic. They have played in the streets with their brothers and neighbors since childhood. When the league was formed, they leaped at the chance to play the sport in an organized group. "I've been playing in the neighborhood since I was 10 years old. I never paid attention to the neighbors when they teased me or told me I shouldn't be playing with the boys," said Hodaly, noting that playing soccer at her age is even less accepted. "I can feel the power running through my body." Soccer has been her passion since she was young, said Thaljieh, a Greek Orthodox, whose room is plastered with posters of Brazilian player Ronaldinho. "My family saw this was my passion," said Thaljieh. "When the boys saw how well I played they would fight to see which team I would play on. Step by step now, Samar is making the effort to convince society (that girls can play too)." Araj-Mousa said that since, traditionally, Palestinians regard soccer as the sole realm of men, female athletes have had to satisfy themselves with basketball or volleyball played on an inside court, where they could be shielded from unwanted attention of curious male eyes. "But soccer gives the girls more power and strength. It gives them a challenge. It lets them show they are equal to boys," said Araj-Mousa, a Greek Orthodox who also serves as the league's technical director. She said she tries to smooth over rough spots for her players, but when she went to speak to Al Bandak's grandmother, she was kicked out of the house. The teams in Ramallah and Jericho, West Bank, and Gaza City don't have regulation-sized grass practice fields, and in Bethlehem the late-afternoon practices continue only until dark, since there is no lighting on the handball courts. Bethlehem University has been very supportive of the league from its inception and allows the Bethlehem team and national team to practice on a university handball court, she said, noting that many of the 20 Bethlehem team members were recruited from private Catholic schools. The league players range in age from 14 to 22. Though the women's league - which includes the four city teams and the national team - has the tacit support of the Palestinian National Soccer Association, there is no budget for their training, said Araj-Mousa. The religiously conservative Hamas government has expressed support for the league - as long as the girls wear modest clothing and don't play outside, said Araj-Mousa. For now, only the Gaza team plays inside, heeding the call for modest dress. The majority of the players on the Bethlehem team wore knee-length shorts and short-sleeve shirts for a recent practice. The soccer league has enabled the women on the national team to travel abroad - something they otherwise would not have been able to do, she said, though tough travel regulations and financial restrictions are always a concern. In January the team hopes to play in the second Arab Women's Football Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and they have been invited to attend a training camp in Germany this summer, she said, but it will all depend on whether they get enough financial support to travel. The national team plays a no-holds-barred game of soccer, making up for what they lack in training with superior enthusiasm and determination, said Coach Emil Hilal. "We are just in the beginning. We need to be practicing three or four times a week. We are more defensive players. Right now we don't have the skills, but maybe in the future we will have a good team," said Hilal, a Melkite Catholic and soccer coach at the Catholic school in Beit Sahour, West Bank. Hilal became national team coach earlier this year, replacing the last coach who resigned after undergoing a traumatic border-crossing experience with Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian security checks delaying the team and requiring the postponement of their game. "The girls sat crying at the border knowing they'd missed their game. He didn't want the team to have (any more) problems because of him," said Araj-Mousa. Out of necessity the women's national team is made up largely of players from Bethlehem, since the coach is here and travel restrictions make it difficult for the other players to come for regular team practices. The first time the national team played was at the West Asian Championship in Jordan in September 2005. It was also the first time the team played on a full-sized grass field, 11 players to a side. The team played in the club championships in Abu Dhabi in February, seven to a side on a grass field. However, the first time the women's national team ever played with a complete roster was in April in the Arab Women's Football Championship in Alexandria, Egypt, where the eight team members from Gaza were finally able to join them. "It was strange playing together as a team, and we didn't even know the girls' names," recalled Hilal. "The other teams ... were (intimidated by us). They saw we had the ability, courage and enthusiasm in our playing even if we were not as well trained as them," said Thaljieh, whose dream is to play professional soccer. Although she was offered a position on a professional team in Abu Dhabi, Thaljieh knows it is unlikely she will be able to fulfill her lifelong passion. She has a knee injury but no insurance to cover the cost of the operation, and she was unable to accept the international offer because as a holder of a Palestinian passport it is very difficult for her to get a visa from Abu Dhabi. So now she concentrates all her efforts on the Palestinian Association for Excellence in Sport to help develop sport awareness in Palestinian youngsters and hopes that younger girls will have the opportunity denied her.

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