I recently read a very inspiring article about a female Jordanian female coach who started a soccer team in Georgia in 2004 for refugees in the US. Dubbed "Fugees," the soccer team’s success story grabbed global interest. According to press reports, there are plans to turn the story of her and her soccer team into a movie. Here is an excerpt from a UNHCR article:
Luma Mufleh grew up in Jordan and emigrated to the United States to attend college. In 2004, she started the Fugees, a soccer team for refugee youth in Clarkston, a small town in the southern US state of Georgia. The town has become the home of many refugees resettled there after fleeing persecution in places such as Afghanistan, Bosnia, Burundi, Congo, Gambia, Iraq, Kosovo, Liberia, Somalia and Sudan. Coaching for six seasons, she has brought together players from diverse backgrounds and worked to find support for her team. UNHCR’s pioneering ninemillion.org campaign, which promotes sport and education for refugee children, has been working with the Fugees for several months.
Here is another excerpt from a New York Times article.
Luma Mufleh, 31, says she was born to coach. She grew up in Amman, Jordan, in a Westernized family, and attended the American Community School, for American and European expatriates and a few well-to-do Jordanians. There, Muslim girls were free to play sports as boys did, and women were permitted to coach.
Her mentor was an American volleyball coach who demanded extreme loyalty and commitment. Ms. Mufleh picked up on a paradox. Though she claimed to dislike her coach, she wanted to play well for her. "For the majority of the time she coached me, I hated her," Ms. Mufleh said. "But she had our respect. Until then, I’d always played for me. I’d never played for a coach."
Ms. Mufleh attended college in the United States, in part because she felt women here had more opportunities. She went to Smith College, and after graduation moved to Atlanta. She soon found her first coaching job, as head of a 12-and-under girls soccer team through the local Y.M.C.A. On the field, Ms. Mufleh emulated her volleyball coach, an approach that did not always sit well with American parents. When she ordered her players to practice barefoot, to get a better feel for the soccer ball, a player’s mother objected on the grounds that her daughter could injure her toes. "This is how I run my practice," Ms. Mufleh told her. "If she’s not going to do it, she’s not going to play."
In this day and time, we need more Jordan-related stories like this and less like this one.
They are actually going to make this story into a movie…
and from the sounds of it (and the amount network’s paid for the story) it should be a pretty well publicized story.
I wrote some about the bidding war, etc. on my own blog as well as taking predictions as to who will play Luma.
she’s a high school friend…great person.
I think it is ok that women exercise sport but they should take in their consideration Jordan is conservative country .They could play footballor other soprt inside closed places just for women with suitable clothes. Unfortunately that is not what is going on in Jordan. Thanks God 90% of Jordanian families do not send their girls to these kinds of sport institutes
I do not want to find an excuse for any sexual harassment against women but there is crisis in Jordan or Arab world. Men and women can not afford marriage, it is so expansive .The poverty is going up .These things leas to disaster in community and youth can not be efficiency in the life
When you accused our people behave as animals toward women, they might do that for many reasons .There is lack of religious education in Arab world special in Jordan people are scared to be labeled as extremist.
Yes I would encourage my sister to play football or basketball and I don’t care if what she wears for that because she’s wearing for a sport, but I know that if she’s going to a place where crazy maniac men are present I’ll encourage her to cover herself from head to toe to avoid harrasment.
Regarding male “supervision” that’s not a bad idea in our society because it can mean protection, and women need protection in our society mainly from our society, but “supervision” unfortunately translates into domination and abuse to most guys.
By the way, will you encourage your sisters or daughter to play football or basketballs in Jordan .I am not sure where are you from? i guess you are from Maan . Please be honest with me do not give answer just to prove your point.
And do males have right to supervise their relatives from females ? why?
By the way, will you encourage your sisters or daughter to play football or basketballs in Jordan .I am not sure where are you from? i guess you are from Man . Please be honest with me do not give answer just to prove your point.
And do males have right to be supervise their relatives from females ? why?
yes and those people in Greece were maniacs and retarded, but I’m talking about our people
I’m all for traditions but it looks like men these days are much more perverted than they were 30 or 40 years ago.
Sorry
i mean
we have not got a good way to communicate with other cultures .
Dear Hereege,
We are debating about women wearing sport clothes like short or swimming suit .You said if there is match of women games take place in Shaboke 200000 fans would attend to see these women .I responded to you for that reason not about women walking in street .Am I right?!
But that is normal for people who came from rural area to find women wearing shorts or jeans unacceptable. I have friend who live in small village in Greece, she did not take her boyfriend to see her family or stay with him in her village .Even she could not dare wear Miniskirt when she is there. She said , when they see women wearing short clothes in her village ,they think she is a prostitute Therefore The life in countryside is different from big city even in Europe
In Jordan are component of tribes even Amman Capital ,We have Univeristies or shopping centers but we still We still have old tradition control our life like other rural area in world .
Believe kids who stoned girls wearing jeans, i bet you if there were guy with blond hair they might have stoned him.
But it does not mean we are manic about sex but we have got a good way to communicate with other cultures .
Salam
Tafili, let any woman walk in shorts in ZArqa or Tafeeleh or Shobak and you’ll see how well is she treated!!
I know girls who were stoned, yes STONED by 16 and 17-yr old kids in Shooneh just because they were walking there
what were they wearing? Jeans and T-shirts. Five of them were muhajabat and one was not but was wearing a jeans….