Girls Too Can Play Soccer!

A letter from Kate Taber serving in Israel-Palestine

October 2015

Friends and family,

Greetings from Bethlehem during this holiday season! Soon the giant tree will go up in Manger Square, lights will hang over every street, and Christmas markets will pop up on every corner. Christians will visit from all over the world, and together we will remember God’s coming to earth in an unlikely place in unlikely circumstances. We will celebrate our faith that God continues to come in all unlikely places, and even still comes to this one today, despite what the headlines would have us believe.

This is a time we need that faith more than ever, as despair and fear appear to triumph over hope and love on a daily basis. Since September the news has seemed almost continuously tragic, with lives being wasted all over Israel and Palestine. One catalyst for renewed unrest has been the increased presence of right-wing Israeli settlers and politicians at the Al Aqsa mosque compound and new practices by Israeli security at the compound. Palestinians have worried that a new status quo was being enforced, one that would undermine their authority over and access to the compound and perhaps any hope of a future Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem. This catalyst occurs in the context of the continuation and deepening of the Israeli military occupation over the last several decades. The combination has resulted in renewed frustration and despair among Palestinians, manifesting among some as clashes with the army and among a handful as violent attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians. The aggressive response by Israel has been deadly for Palestinians.

Nathan and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary in the West Bank village of Sebastiya, containing some of the area’s most important ruins.

The past months have brought personal tragedies to our family as well. Nathan and I have lost two pregnancies this year, the first at 14 weeks the beginning of July and the second at 12 weeks the end of October. Of course we are incredibly sad, deeply exhausted, and discouraged and delayed in our hopes for growing our family. Yet we are grateful to have been blessed by quality and compassionate medical care as well as understanding and support from mission partners and friends of this ministry. This has been a year of uncertainty for these reasons, and I ask for your forgiveness as I have changed my travel plans multiple times over the past months. We ask for your prayers for our healing during this season of joy and hope. We greatly look forward to spending the holidays with Nathan’s parents, who will be visiting us.

As always, I am inspired and renewed by our mission partners, who continue their ministries with steadfastness and hope. I recently had the privilege of meeting and interviewing staff and participants involved with the Diyar Consortium’s women’s soccer teams. The Diyar Consortium is a mission partner affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land.

“We started in 2009 with five girls who really had to fight for their right to play soccer in their communities and families,” said Rami Khader, the manager of the Diyar Academy for Children and Youth in Bethlehem, Palestine, and one of the initiators of the women’s soccer program. I followed him through the noisy indoor stadium during soccer practice. On one side a young woman coached small boys and girls, and on the other side teenage girls kicked a soccer ball around. Neither scene would have been imaginable just seven years ago. Khader described the many obstacles the team faced in the early days, in the midst of a society in which even those who believed women were equal still believed they could not play soccer. Some found it too strange, some were concerned about their daughters traveling on their own away from home for games, and some were concerned about their daughters’ prospects for marriage if they were seen as tomboys.

Participants in Diyar’s women’s soccer teams pose for a photo, with interviewee Saurabh in the front row, second from right.

Khader believes, however, that attitudes began to change as families saw the girls’ passion for the game and what they were learning from it: fair play, confidence, healthy competitiveness, equality on the field, leadership, and more. More families were willing to let their girls play, stadiums began to fill with spectators for games, and the local news began to report on the girls’ soccer games. Khader said: “It turned out to be one of the most successful programs we had encountered. We went from having a society in total denial of women playing soccer to full stadiums of men and women watching games.” Today the program consists of three teams with a fourth team under formation. One team has been the champion of their age group in Palestine for three years running. When the program began they were one of the first teams in Palestine; now there are 21.

Khader believes deeply in the positive impact of the program. “The girls have started to believe that the sky is really the limit. If you told anyone in the Palestinian community about women’s soccer eight years ago, they’d say that it was a dream, that it’s not possible. The program makes the girls believe that women’s leadership in Palestine is not impossible.”

I had the privilege of speaking with some of the program’s participants, including Saurabh (19). Saurabh was a member of that first team, which continues to this day. Now she also coaches two of the younger teams and is leading the formation of the fourth team. She said she always had incredible support from her mother, but it was a challenge to be accepted in her community. Saurabh says playing soccer has impacted her life greatly: “I’ve been playing with Diyar since I was 12. I used to really feel I cannot talk to people or get connected with others. I never felt I could lead others. But being on this team helped me be more confident and believe in myself—not just as a player but as a coach.”

Khader invites any who are inspired by the program to support them financially and to tell the girls’ story to show how women in Palestine are changing their society. Khader says, “The success of this program is an example of how it is possible for women’s leadership to convince a conservative society that women are equal even in the most challenging area—in playing soccer.”

During this season of hope I give thanks for the ways you provide hope to me and to the people of Israel-Palestine. Please continue offering your prayers, your communications and advocacy, your partnership, and your financial contributions to this ministry. May God bless you, and may the Prince of Peace rule in our hearts and in this world.

Kate

The 2015 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 344