AMMAN — Jordanian tennis champion Randa Naffa inherited her
flair for the game from her parents, Huda and Jamal; the first generation in a
family of tennis player who carry the Naffa name across the national men’s and
women’s teams to this day.
اضافة اعلان
“I started playing tennis when I was five years old. I received
all the support I needed from my mother who was among the first to take up the
sport in Jordan,” Naffa told
Jordan News in
an interview.
“My mother passed her love for tennis on to us. We are a
family that breathes tennis; passion for the sport has even passed on to the
grandkids,”Naffa explained, noting that her son Talal “is among the best on the
U12 national team.”
Naffa, 46 — winner of
the 1993 and 1994 women’s tennis tournaments and the
American University of Beirut championship — said tennis was her addiction, explaining that she still
has a keen interest in the details of matches, especially the
Grand Slam.
The athlete, who stepped off the court in 1997, after
spending close to a decade as national champion, recalled feeling as though she
and her fellow women never received the same level of support that their male
counterparts did.
“I always sensed some discrimination when I used to play. I
never had the same incentives and opportunities, such as training camps that
the men had. This is a phenomenon that still plagues individual sport and needs
to change,” the athlete said.
In 2011, founded “
SADAQA,” a campaign-turned-
NGO that seeks
to encourage women in Jordan to join the workforce by creating positive and
friendly and sustainable work
environments.
“The idea behind (SADAQA)
came from personal experience, because the main reason women leave the
workforce is the absence of childcare facilities, which in turn creates
pressure on women to drop out of the labor market,” Naffa underlined.
She added: “My interests
greatly revolve around community organization through the creation of campaigns
and lobbying for legal rights. My political interests center on leading
international campaigns to counter the normalization of ties (with Israel) and
shedding light on the occupation’s infringement upon Palestinian’s rights.
The advocate said she
does not have a single role model, but rather derives inspiration from pioneers
in their respective fields.
“We meet different
people in different fields and each one offers something new. But you could say
that women’s success stories inspire me the most, especially knowing the extent
of silent suffering they have to push through.”
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