Changing The Game For Girls - Meet Jordanian Footballer Yasmeen Shabsough

“Sport can create change where there was once despair” - Nelson Mandela

Yasmeen Shabsough is a Jordanian footballer who combines her love of the game with advocating for female empowerment and encouraging confidence in women and girls. Yasmeen focuses on disrupting the notion that sport “distracts from education”, and works to promote and build opportunities for more females to participate in football within Jordan. Yasmeen’s own journey has led her to break records and travel around the world, joining forces with fellow female footballers all working to destigmatise the sport and promote the benefits of this change.

““In the beginning, being a girl who plays football in Jordan was not accepted by people. They did not believe that a young girl can play football; nor that she should. People only started accepting and supporting us when we were doing better than the men’s teams.””

Growing up with a family of brothers chasing the ball, Yasmeen found herself joining in and picking up a passion for the game. By the age of 13, she was chosen to play for Jordan’s first U-14s Female National Team, and as the team grew stronger, they began to travel across the world to compete in matches. This allowed Yasmeen to meet women from all corners of the globe encouraging her own understanding of how sport builds confidence and harvests fundamental values that can create change.“Sports empower us as women. Football teaches you values about teamwork, respect, building self-confidence, and determination. When women implement these values into their daily lives, change occurs.”

“Studies show that by the age of 17, more than half of the girls playing sport will quit altogether to focus on their studies. There’s a misunderstanding that sport is a waste of time, that life will become unbalanced when studying sports and academics at the same time. [But] football is not just a game. It’s a way of learning values, it’s education, joy, building a positive network, keeping your mind and body in good shape.” Yasmeen Shabsough, TEDxPSUT, 2019

With a desire to encourage these changes, Yasmeen became involved with Equal Playing Field - an initiative that challenges gender equality and promotes women and girls in sport around the world. As part of EPF’s attempt to raise awareness, Yasmeen climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with 23 other female footballers, to play a match at the highest altitude to date (5800 metres above sea level), representing her country of Jordan. Inspired by this experience, Yasmeen organised ‘The Jordan Quest’, a 12 day hike through the valleys of Jordan with 40 players from 25 countries, coaching over 700 young girls they met along the way on how to play football. Yasmeen explains how “It was a mashup of nationalities coming together for the benefit of girls in sports”, ending with a football match held at the lowest altitude ever played in history, by the Dead Sea.

Since this point, Yasmeen has worked for GIZ - Sport for Development, a project which runs camps and clinics for kids all around Jordan. Through every match played, and for every girl who is involved, Yasmeen is setting an example of what change looks like. She encourages other young women to keep pursuing their joy of sport, saying “To the women and girls wanting to play football, it’s never too late. Don't let anyone doubt your abilities because you're a girl.”

Follow Yasmeen Shabsough on Twitter @shabsough19 and Instagram @yasmeen.shabsough.19

Words: Bethany Burgoyne