Please good things
Morocco On the paths of the “Bernoussi” neighborhood in Casablanca, Fatiha Fatiha learned to play football, and on the paths of life she chose writing as another means of self-expression, transcending the stereotypes associated with female football players.
At an early age, Fatiha Fatih began taking her first steps towards professional women’s football, between the paths of the popular neighborhood in which she grew up in Casablanca, and among the male neighbors’ children. She joined one of the city’s clubs before becoming a professional player at the Phoenix Club in Marrakesh.
Another space for self expression
Despite her professionalism in football, she never stopped reading and writing, which formed another passion that added to her passion for football, and this resulted in the birth of two literary publications entitled “In Lament of Innocence” and “A Homeland whose Shadow Is Not Seen.”
Regarding writing, she says, “Away from the playing field, I wanted to create another space for myself to express my feelings, thoughts, and perceptions of a number of human issues that occupied and continue to occupy my mind. Everything I wrote down in these two publications is the result of a group of observations, impressions, and experiences that I went through in my life.”
She explained, “In fact, as is the case with football, reading and writing were another outlet for me that opened up horizons of expression for me. I found in writing a way to express my feelings, and I made sure to practice it regularly, while reading constituted an inexhaustible source that fed the writer’s imagination and provided him with language tools that needed refinement and control. Without reading, the writer cannot continue his creative life or continue.”
In the beginning, Fatiha Fatiha was not obsessed with publishing what she wrote. She used to write only for herself, and sometimes published her texts via virtual communication platforms, until her friends advised her to compile the texts she published into a book because they “deserved publication.”
She writes about the marginalized, the homeless, and marginalized people in the city of Casablanca, which Moroccans call “the ghoul city.” It is the city in which I grew up, and through it I got to know different groups of Moroccan society. Casablanca embraces multiple segments that came from different regions of Morocco, in search of better opportunities in life.
She says, “I wrote texts about street children, the homeless, and children of the poor. In the city of Casablanca, I developed a special kind of feeling. I listened to their pulse, and I wanted to be their heard voice. I could not leave those images that passed by me daily without writing them down in texts. I would never have thought of publishing them in a book had it not been for the insistence of some friends and friends.”
Combining football and the world of narrative
Fatiha Fatiha rejects the idea that “there is a big gap between female football players and the world of literature.” She believes that society does not recognize women’s right to be present in some spaces, such as stadiums. Although women’s football has begun to impose itself forcefully, in a society that does not recognize women’s rights, the combination of football and literature still represents a strange paradox for many.
She says that the distance between sports and literature is still great, and she describes this as an unfortunate thing, as it is difficult in a society dominated by masculinity to accept a woman who plays football, a game that has long been restricted to men, so how about a woman who combines playing football and writing narratives. However, she does not see it as an impossibility; While she strives to develop her football skills, she also aspires to make a prominent name for herself in the world of storytelling.
She explained that she did not choose to enter the world of writing intentionally, but rather found herself writing almost daily all the feelings and thoughts that were burning inside her, out of a desire to make her voice heard and express those who have no voice. For her, writing has never been in conflict with professional football, as some might think. Rather, they are two different forms of expression that perform the same function, which is self-realization and communicating what she feels.
Writing and alienation
During all the daily stops that she stopped and turned into vibrant texts, Fatiha Fatih continued to feel a kind of alienation within the world of football, which she loved and gave all her time and energy to. On the one hand, she cannot live without playing football and cannot walk the paths of life apart from reading and writing.
And if she finds herself in two different worlds, but they go side by side like two parallel lines, she nevertheless feels alienated in the space that embraced her first passion, on the field. “In fact, I feel very alienated as a writer inside the world of football, and perhaps this feeling is what prompted me to write as a kind of search for the self that was not achieved in football, and she kept searching for her other half, which she found in the world of narration and writing.”
Like many female football players, Fatiha Fatiha is fighting a battle to prove herself in the women’s football space, seeking to break the stereotypes that haunt female players. At the same time, she is looking for a foothold in the world of writing, to take on another challenge regarding the presence of women in fields from which they have long been forcibly excluded.
Keep reading
