Characters
  
Please click on the thumbnails below to view profile...
 


NASSRA JUMA MOHAMMED, 43, [Founder, Coach, & Manager] is ingenious,
inspirational and passionate about football. NASSRA is the driving force behind
women’s football in Zanzibar. She is a qualified football coach, and the first female
coach in Zanzibar, Tanzania. She played badminton for many years and was a
badminton Champion for East and Central Africa in the late 1980s and mid 1990s. NASSRA is an inspiration for the young women, and she believes in women's empowerment through sports. She's been managing the team single-handedly
since 1988. Her recent initiative is setting up a provision store to sustain the team.
She is the coach, role model, and a devoted and charismatic woman who is
determined to keep women’s football alive.





AMINA ABDALLAH, 31, [Former Defender, Tanzania National Team]
was a successful international player whose football dreams were
shattered when she got married; she became another man’s dream.
She looks back in anger and still has the urge to play the game she
loves; her husband stopped her from playing football soon after they
got married; “…I felt so unhappy…I wanted to burn my football shirts
and socks…”


FEROUS ALI AMIR, 40, is a founder member of Women Fighters. She
still enjoys training. Before the team was formed, she played football in
the streets with men. She is unconventional in her appearance. She says
the only reason some of them have survived in the team is because they
do not take any notice of people’s negative comments about women
exposing parts of her bodies in public.



LIGHTNESS VICENT, 18, [Midfield] is a sweet and cheerful young
woman with a beautiful voice. She divides her time between playing
football and singing in the church choir. She believes she is better
singer than a footballer; she’s been singing since childhood.


MARISSA YUSSUF HAMID, played football while studying in Cuba.
She joined the team in January 2006 and was concerned that she will
not be accepted because of her weight. She is much happier now after
losing a lot of weight as a result of the intensive training sessions and
also taking part in matches. She is proud to be part of the team and to
have her name “MARISSA” printed on the back of her football shirt;
something she has always dreamed of.


WARDA KHALID, 20, [Midfield] gets support from her mother who
clearly sees a connection between sports and women’s development.
WARDA is determined to gain employment before getting married, as
this will prevent her future husband from oppressing her. She hopes to
gain employment through playing football and also aspires to play
abroad. “My aspiration is to become a good footballer. I would also like
to visit other countries. I don’t want just to be stuck here in Maissara.”


ZUWENA SALEH, 24, [Goalkeeper] is proud and determined to make a
better life for herself. Her serious countenance and piercing eyes reveal
pain from the past. Her husband rejected her for not having children.
Playing football gives ZUWENA a safe space to build a new life and to
forget the bad memories of her married life. Because of football, I am
forgetting about the pain I experienced in my marriage.”


 


llllllllllll llllllllllll lllllllllll

llllllllllll llllllllllll
 
 


Awards

  • Special Mention, Zanzibar International Film Festival, July 2007
 
Designed by www.kumanga.co.uk
Copyright © 2008 Florence Ayisi.