The unbearable silence in women’s football
While women footballers have been trailblazers in advocating for gender equality, LGBTQ+ rights, and refugee support, many remain conspicuously silent on Gaza and Lebanon, writes Shireen Ahmed.
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On November 16, Celine Haider, a 19-year old player with Lebanon’s youth national team, was struck by an Israeli shell during an attack on the Chiyah neighbourhood in southern Beirut. The shrapnel hit her in the head causing massive head trauma including skull fractures and brain bleeding. The rising star now lies in a medically induced coma.
Haider’s friends are in shock and distress as she lies in the ICU ward of Saint-Georges hospital in the Achrafieh suburb. Meanwhile, her heartbroken teammates have a sign at their training pitch at Beirut Football Academy that reads: “We are waiting for you.”
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In the last ten years, the women’s football ecosystem has grown and prospered. Attendance records continue to be shattered in Europe, South America and the USA, while teams are expanding and new professional leagues are being formed. Arguably, this is an inspiration to young people and thrilling to others who can witness women playing professionally all over the world. These new teams serve as blueprints for pushing back against oppression and injustice.
Amidst the growth, there are continuous conversations about abuse or maltreatment, underpayment and issues of systemic proportions. Most recently, a global group of over 100 women’s players wrote a letter to FIFA President Gianni Infantino objecting to the corporate partnership with Saudi Aramco. The letter cited the country’s human rights violations including oppression of women and LGBTQ2S+ groups as a point of concern and stated that sponsorship from the Saudi-owned oil and gas conglomerate goes against the very nature of the women’s game.
The letter also cited environmental concerns as Saudi Aramco is the highest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. Alarming to say the least.
Though there have been critiques of the letter, it is fair to say that the culture of women’s football is one that shows solidarity and is unafraid to speak out.
After the 2023 Women’s World Cup final, the former head of Spanish Football, Luis Rubiales, sexually assaulted World Cup champion Jenni Hermoso on stage during the award ceremony. The football world came together to show solidarity against the toxic, ruthless and unprofessional (illegal) act of Rubiales, including armbands, signs and a hashtag of #ContigoJenni. It was a clear message that the women’s game would not tolerate this kind of violence. It also spoke to the core of integrity of women’s football and the power of being unafraid. The Saudi Aramco letter continued to show how women light the way on oft dark paths.
There is, however, one urgent issue that remains deliberately ignored or conveniently dismissed: the deaths of athletes from the attacks by Israeli forces. Women’s football has been completely decimated in Gaza — all sports, in fact — and over 500 athletes have been killed. But the world of football, and women’s football in particular, has remained silent.
I reached out to the Union of Canadian Soccer Players representing the Women’s Team (CanWNT/CanXNT) and had not received a reply at the time of publishing. My intention was to ask Captain Jessie Fleming, one of the architects of the Saudi Aramco letter, and Halifax Tides goalkeeper Erin McLoed, a vocal advocate for human rights if they had comment or if the women’s team had comment or a statement.
In a recent interview I did with McLoed for CBC Sports, she told me that using her voice is something she wants to do more and more. McLeod confirmed that the collective action of a group is powerful. And she’s right. We’ve seen the power of collectives in women’s sport. The WNBA, the world’s top professional women’s basketball league, has been at the forefront of campaigns to advocate for Black Lives Matter, women’s reproductive rights, and is the only league in the world to have a specific social justice council.
Advocacy is essential in sport and women’s football in particular has had incredible movement in this realm. Be it LGBTIQ2S+ (Megan Rapinoe), refugee rights (Nadia Nadim, Khalida Popal), pay equity (Alex Morgan), gender equity (Ada Hegerberg), Black justice (Crystal Dunn), labour rights and fair treatment (Christine Sinclair) and then, of course, supporting Jenni Hermoso.
The juxtaposition of players brazenly speaking up to protect part of their tribe against sexualized violence but remaining silent when another sister in football is lying broken in an ICU ward is flabbergasting. There has been such a stunning silence from women’s football that I have had to double-take many times over 415 days.
FIFA legend and former Swedish goalkeeper, Hedvig Lindahl, told me that she, too, feels frustrated at the constant silence not only about Haider and other victims, but about all the innocent lives lost since October 7, 2023.
“I truly hope she will recover and I feel for her and all the other victims of someone else's war,” Lindahl told me. “The least we, as a football community, can do is to show compassion with the victims. A lot of footballers have been killed and injured in the last year and at some point one would expect some organized sign of solidarity with the victims.”
Lindahl was asked to sign the Saudi Aramco letter but publicly posted that she refused to do so, arguing that, while it is important, the ongoing murder of Palestinians warranted some words or action, too.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) Lindahl wondered why the genocide does not merit any attention at all from fellow footballers. (Same, Hedvig. Same.)
I, too, have wondered why this is. Is it actual ignorance and unknowing? Is it fear of repercussions? Why has my own industry been so silent when there are pressing stories about injustice in sport?
I have thought about this so much over the last year and come to a conclusion: it’s not complicated. It is either a lack of moral courage, an unwillingness to care for Palestinian and Arab lives, a culture of silence that has been created in the sports media ecosystem, a fear of saying the wrong thing, or perhaps, a mix of all the above.
Initially, I found out about Haider’s condition through Lebanese sports journalist Assile Toufaily (and a former teammate of Haider) and Leyla Hamed, a Spanish-Moroccan journalist with The Athletic. Hamed’s reporting throughout the genocide has been essential and she has amplified stories through her social media platforms that few will discuss.
This leads me to think a lot about a recent talk at Carleton University by journalist Pacinthe Mattar called “Objectivity, Press Freedom and the Palestine Exception”. Mattar was reflecting on commentary from a former journalism professor who told her after hearing her interview on Canadaland discussing her experiences reporting on Palestine.
“You are walking an emotionally demanding and perhaps lonely road. As the go-to person for risky commentary about journalism, more than once in the interview I heard the reluctance and strain and risk-awareness in your voice.”
I look to journalists like Toufaily, Karim Zidan, Jules Boykoff, Dave Zirin, Jonathan Liew, and Hamed — whose most recent piece is among other things, a scathing look at the biases in reporting as exemplified in the European League match scandal in Amsterdam. Their work is essential for providing context and facts in a media space that will otherwise be ignored.
In an attempt to open this topic up for dialogue, I made a public call-out on Twitter and Instagram to thousands of followers for footballers, staff and football media to reach me in confidentiality. I wanted to know if anyone in the women’s football landscape felt silenced. I received dozens of responses but not a single one from an active footballer.
I spoke with a former international player* who told me, “... My reluctance to wade into it is because of lack of knowledge and the fear that I am not competent enough to discuss it loosely. It stands in stark contrast to what women footballers traditionally do, which is, advocate for one another whether it’s about abuse or Hermoso, the Saudi sponsorship of both the men’s world cup and the women’s world cup. There have always been acts of defiance in the women’s game and collectively never been ones to shy away from that. There has been that solidarity, particularly with human rights. So why this double standard?”
For transparency, my 22-year old daughter represents Pakistan at the international level. She has regularly shared information on the genocide on her social media. In our family, we continue to have conversations about sport, about genocide and about mainstream sport media’s lack of interest in reporting. She has told me that she has no qualms in sharing information on her public football profile and will continue to do so.
The first report in Western media that I saw of Haider’s situation was from Suzy Wrack of The Guardian. Two days following Wrack’s reporting, came a wire report from Reuters by two Beirut-based journalists, Riham Alkoussa and Joelle Kozaily. ESPN also published it.
CBC Sports later picked it up in the afternoon after I made contact with the on-duty editor to ask about it. It had been passed on by the morning team.
I spoke to several members of mainstream WoSo media (who shall remain anonymous for concerns of professional retaliation) who admitted that workplace policy prevented staff from speaking publicly about Israel or Palestine even on their personal social media accounts. “This is the topic that makes you radioactive,” they said.
Another person working in women’s soccer told me that, although they advocated for justice privately, they also definitely censored themselves at times. Is the silence from women’s footballers also self-censorship?
I did not hear back from any of the footballers I reached out to for comment. I also reached out to FIFA regarding Haider’s condition. A FIFA spokesperson responded to my email, stating, “This is not something we are in a position to comment on.” He then referred me to a comment from the 74th FIFA Congress.
“The ongoing violence in the region confirms that, above all considerations, and as stated at the 74th FIFA Congress, we need peace. As we remain extremely shocked by what is happening, and our thoughts are with those who are suffering, we urge all parties to restore peace to the region with immediate effect.”
This is hardly groundbreaking nor impactful commentary from the international governing body.
Disappointing and unsurprising.
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Football is a game that connects women in struggle. It unites them through adversity. We have witnessed women standing firm in their belief that justice must prevail, that safe spaces for women and girls should exist, and that they should have opportunities to grow and thrive in sports. Women should never be silenced.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t apply to any women’s players unjustly caught in the line of attacks by Israeli forces. Perhaps one day, women’s football will stand true to its morals and speak up for the lives who have been lost, the vulnerable and innocent lives currently in danger, and the women and girls who will never get the chance to play the beautiful game.
* Source requested anonymity
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