Medals and glories have begun piling up for Jordanian women
athletes in recent years, be it in individual or team sports, but athletes say
that support for women sports in the Kingdom is lacking, to say the least,
leaving them to sometimes take solo, obstacle-ridden journeys to achieve
victories for Jordan.
اضافة اعلان
Professional football player and former gymnastics star
Yasmin Khair, 34, cites “absence of support” as one of the main reasons for the
small number of women sport stars in the Kingdom.
“This is not necessarily financial support; there are other
things that women athletes need in terms of sound study and planning of their
future, to ensure continuous achievements,” Khair told
Jordan News in
a recent interview.
Age also comes into play, according to Khair.
“I’ve been both a gymnast and a football player. Each sport,
whether an individual or a team sport, is different. For a gymnast, the virtual
career is short, which leads to women retiring early, while football goes on
for anyone who is still able to go on, meaning that physical fitness allows
women to stay longer on the field,” the athlete said.
The winner of the 1991 Pan Arab Games gymnastics gold and
six other medals in the 2004 games of Algeria also spoke of society’s view of
women athletes as another key impact. “Society’s view of women athletes has
improved… in the past, they used to get support from their families and loved
ones, but today, they are starting to gain good standing in the community.”
Likewise, the absence of support and the suspension of
holding tournaments led to the early retirement of basketball player Dina
Halaseh, at the age of 31. Today, she heads the women committee of the Jordan
Basketball Federation, and is a member of its board of directors.
“Large clubs did not support women athletes, and former
federations have failed to form a women’s basketball team for 10 years… Back
then, we used to play 10 games a year, while today, women play some 60 games a
season, which comes to show that we should be patient to reap the fruit of our work
and take the podium,” Halaseh told
Jordan News.
The former basketballer expressed deep regret for the
absence of media support during her athletic days, noting the lack of
“calculated coverage” of women sports in all media platforms, with all
spotlights on men sports.
“But the scene is improving today, and all that remains is
achievement,” Halaseh noted.
Halaseh believes that the retirement age for women athletes
can be raised to 40, narrowing the gap between men and women athletes, if there
were to be success in creating incentives and providing various forms of
support.
For her part, mixed martial artist Lina Fayyadh cites lack
of support of all kinds, including financial and moral, as an obstacle to the
success of Jordanian women in any form of sports, noting that if it was not for
the support of her family, she would not have carried on with such a difficult
sport for 20 years.
“The training of women is different than that of men, and
there are no tournaments with a clear agenda for developing the general
performance of women athletes, not to mention that there is no federation
acting as an explicit umbrella for this sport, so I mostly take part in foreign
tournaments on an individual capacity. This absence of support constituted an
obstacle for me in achieving my dream of qualifying for the Olympics and
earning a win for Jordan,” Fayyadh said.
For Fayyadh, the way society views women athletes and the
gender inequality in sports in terms of training and support was a motivation
that pushed her towards success, she said, citing a vehement attack and many
instances of verbal abuse throughout her career. “It motivated me to prove
myself, and showed me that I’m on the right track.”
With more optimism than that of her fellow women athletes,
Asia taekwondo champion and Olympic gold medalist of 2012 Nadine Dawani, cites
“clear advancement of women sports in Jordan, evident in the achievements of
women in many sports, including combat sports,” she told
Jordan News.
“I realize that it was difficult for society to accept the
idea of women in combat sports in the past, but there is a rise in the number
of women playing sports professionally, and there is a good number of women
athletes in every sport and in each age category,” Dawani added.
The athlete commended the role of Jordan in women sports,
deeming the Kingdom a pioneer on the Arab level in that field. “Neighboring
countries always seek the assistance of our cadres, to make use of the
expertise of Jordanian women athletes,” Dawani said.
Dawani was in agreement with other Jordanian women athletes
however, regarding the early retirement age of women athletes, especially in
light of society’s expectations for women after marriage, which push women
athletes to retire at an early age.
“The result of this is that we see a larger number of young
women athletes than that of older ones, which is a big problem for women
sports, both in Jordan and in the Arab world,” Dawani said.
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