Meet Egypt’s first female coach of a men's soccer team
Fayza Haidar has become Egypt’s first female coach to train a male soccer team, breaking all norms in a conservative society like Egypt.
A female soccer coach stands near the stadium’s benches giving her instructions to the male players passing the ball to each other.
“It is not common in Middle Eastern society for a woman to join a soccer team and there are very few teams for women's soccer in Egypt. Men still refuse to play against women in the same stadium, let alone being trained by a woman,” soccer team captain Fayza Haidar, 36, told Al-Monitor. She recounted how difficult it was for her to be accepted as a coach of male soccer teams. “I endured criticisms, attacks and challenges, but I made it,” she said.
