CAIRO - Believing that the media are not paying enough attention to women's football worldwide, she thought of holding an exhibition and writing a book about it. On the occasion of the Women's Football World Cup in Germany, the Goethe Institute in Cairo is holding an exhibition of the works of German photographer Claudia Wiens about women's football in Egypt, Palestine, Turkey and Germany. “I started my project in 2006 and it has grown slowly since then. I have met with Egyptian players playing different local clubs, such as Vacsera Club, Wadi Degla Club and el-Sayyeda Zeinab Club, as well as the national team. “I have also travelled with the national team to Germany. I really like the players. They have lots of energy. They do everything to be able to play,” Claudia, who has been living in Cairo for more than 10 years now, told The Egyptian Gazette. Her exhibition contains a lot of photos depicting the energy of women players, especially Egyptian ones. She has captured their movements and their feelings, as well as their joy in winning a match. A capturing photo on display is that of young Egyptian women playing at el-Sayyeda Zeinab Club, southern Cairo, where the pitch is very sandy. There's no money for a fancy lawn. As for Vacsera, they play on a concrete playground in Abbasiya. One photo of a woman in a hijab playing football shows that wearing a headscarf isn't a problem. There is also a photo of women celebrating Egypt's hotly contested World cup qualifier defeat of Algeria in Cairo, in 2009. This photo highlights the fact that the number of female fans is steadily increasing, as Claudia comments in her caption on the photo. The exhibition also includes a number of photos of Turkish, Palestinian and German women players. Beside each group of photos, there is a brief history of women's football in each country. These notes are given from her book in four languages (English, Arabic, German and Turkish) entitled: Women's Football in Egypt, Turkey, Palestine and Berlin, costing 22 euros. As for women's football in Egypt, Claudia writes the following: “It has nearly been twenty years since Sahar el-Hawary crisscrossed Egypt looking for girls playing football. She went against the flow to found a strong women's team, struggling for official recognition. “She found what she was looking for in sleepy villages in Egypt, bringing the girls to Cairo. She took care of them and gave them proper football training. In late 1990s her unwavering commitment was crowned with success, when the Egyptian women's national team qualified for the Women's African Cup of Nations. “Other international awards followed, making women's football in Egypt more popular. Today, they are twelve teams in the First Division and eight in the Second. “Another of Sahar's achievements has been training up female referees, again in the face of initial resistance. Nowadays, many men's teams are specifically requesting female referees, since word has gotten around that they are often better and fairer.”
The photo exhibition by German photographer Claudia Wiens is being held at the Word Hall of the Sawy Cultural Centre, end of 26th July St., Zamalek. It runs until July 5.
