October 2023. Büttelborn. On one side there are women in T-shirts, shorts and their hair tied in a ponytail. On the other side, the arms, legs and hair of the six players are wrapped in dark fabric. The game between the volleyball players from TV Büttelborn and DSW Darmstadt 4 has been going on for an hour. The temperature and the mood in the sports hall are heating up; The score is close, both teams have won one set. During a time out, the players change their male coaches. On the one hand, this is completely normal, but on the other hand, it would have been unimaginable a few years ago.
In her free time, Mayla Ahmed is a volleyball player, trainer and integration coach. Volleyball had been her hobby for a long time before she decided to found her own team in Büttelborn six years ago. All she had to do was buy enough balls and a net to play with – and get women interested in the project. The latter wasn’t a problem, after all, they were the reason why Ahmed took this step in the first place: women in her environment should be given the opportunity to do sports. And the way they feel comfortable. For some this meant wearing a headscarf, for others it was only among women, and for others, as beginners, they didn’t dare join established teams. All of them had a migration background.
