Rola is a little hoarse. She experiences every shot that goes through the hoop as a victory. Ten years ago, a Palestinian painter, Madji, formed a women’s basketball team in the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut. He wanted to prevent his daughter from suffering a child marriage. Through the ball, more than a hundred girls have been able to practice sports and think that another life is possible. On Sunday, in Fontajau, the Palestine Youth Club will culminate its trip through Catalonia with the Uni Girona – Perfumerías Avenida, which will serve to raise funds within the ‘Nenes Valentes’ campaign.
“Basketball has gotten us out of a really bad place.”has made us better people to build our own career, without getting married at an early age, one of the problems in our countries. If you don’t study or work you have to get married, clean and cook for your husband,” says Rola Al Ferkh. To play on the team, It is essential to continue studying.
have your own life
“When you play you see more life, you study, you go out, you travel and you see how other people live. And you don’t want to just get married, have kids and be home. Even if I don’t play basketball later, I want to be successful, study and have my own life. That is my priority,” adds Al Ferkh, a 23-year-old Lebanese woman who has a university degree in finance and who has not yet thought about getting married.
The refugee camp Shatilalocated in the suburbs of Beirut, was established to house more than 3,000 Palestinians fleeing the conflict with Israel in 1948. Now, it is estimated that about 40,000 people live in overcrowded conditions. “Life is very complicated in the countryside, it is very small, there is hardly any electricity, the water is salty, the buildings are narrow, there is no security…” says Rola.
Players of the first women’s basketball team from the Shatila refugee camp (Beirut), during their visit to Esplugues. / Zowy Voeten
Safe space
The team, made up of Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian girls, has made the field their refuge. “The basketball court has become a safe space for themwhere they develop their physical and mental abilities, and where they begin to think in a different way, focusing on themselves instead of thinking about escaping their families or their tiny houses, some with only one room. In this safe space, they begin to feel valued, listened to and now they are stars“says Rola Fares, the team’s psychologist.
Child marriages, school dropouts or drugs They are some of the usual destinations for many country girls. The basket has become his lifeline. “Basketball has to serve as a springboard for them. It gives them the opportunity to get off the wheel where other girls live. It is an opportunity for them to get ahead,” says coach Madji Majzoub. Under the Basket Beats Borders initiative – basketball overcomes borders – they have been able to travel to Madrid, Ireland, Bilbao or Rome.
Players of the first women’s basketball team from the Shatila refugee camp (Beirut), during their visit to Esplugues. / Zowy Voeten
“Basketball is my entire life. I love him more than many people,” says Amenah Al Madani. “It’s the only thing that makes me escape from reality, another world where I always want to be,” she adds. She is the center of the team, the tallest, although she claims, laughing, that most of the girls here are taller than her.
Change mentalities
At first, the parents of many of them, like Amenah’s, did not welcome their playing sports. “Parents are afraid of how others see their daughters, They are very affected by what they will say. And for them, the normal thing is that a girl just goes to school and comes home. We try to empower girls and make parents change their way of thinking. “Sport pushes girls, it makes them better,” says Rola Fares.
Txell Feixas, journalist and author of the book ‘Aliades’, which tells the story of the team, highlights the role of the coach: “Madji is an example of an agent of change. We often criminalize all men in the Arab world and, despite the fact that machismo is present in the region, there are also men who help and promote this shared fight. “Madji has made a project of girls who enjoy, share and fight.”
In Shatila there are still many people who turn their backs on Lebanon’s first women’s basketball team. But The youngest girls begin to want to be like them. The ball has allowed them to fight for their own destiny. And while, shooting baskets, they don’t get tired of laughing.
2024-03-08 05:01:11
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