Farida Salem and the Egyptian Football
Who would have thought this woman hailing from Cairo would do the impossible — okay, let’s call it the difficult.
Farida Salem is known nowadays a coach but she is more than that : she is the founder & director of a women football academy in Cairo.
When I started my podcast, I knew I wanted to talk with people with interesting stories , to say that I was blessed to have connected with Farida is an understatement. It started with a message on Instagram, explaining the purpose of the podcast. Several hours later, I received a voice message on WhatsApp sharing her excitement as well. From there, we arrange the day of the interview via FaceTime — from the get go, it was like talking to a friend, not only were we both Africans but I understood the hassle of wanting to become a pro athlete in a society that still mixes sports with sexuality among other biases. Here I have to be honest, I had to arrange a second interview because on the first one, there was a technical problem, no sound on her part! So, here we used Zoom. Thankful!
When I think about connecting with people all around the world, I have this western assumption that people do have the same access to Internet as I do, the same speed etc. When interviewing people outside Europe, I am reminded how far we have come the last 15 years.
The remote work I do is done via Zoom, FaceTime, Microsoft Teams, LinkedIn, Twitter etc.
Conversing with Farida felt like I was in 2005 in the tech world, ideas of changing the women in sports are there but not fully embraced — it seems like we need to shout to explain there is a market for women in sport, to shout all the more to show the potential of pro athletes in the Middle East North Africa region (MENA).
Now that I have a reference, I am confident that in 2035, the sports landscape will be changed by me and you. Media will have embraced women for their athletic skills and not only for their body type.
Farida Salem is aiming to change the MENA region first and bring her academy around the world. Nowadays, we are blessed to have technology that affords a certain visibility on the web — let’s hope that the Women World Cup in 2023 will bring more viewers and that actors of that change will be rewarded respectfully.
At the time of this writing, I read that the National Women’s team had been cancelled in the morning and some public pressure had rehabilitated them by the end of the afternoon. Here is how much the African countries take care of their women national teams.
