Mick Hartley

Sudan is slowly emerging from decades of rule by the brutal Islamist regime of Omar al-Bashir. A case in point: women's soccer is a reality at last, as shown in this Al-Arabiya report, via MEMRI:

Reporter: They have been subjected to harassment – some at home and in their neighborhood, and others in the streets and at the universities. But they insisted on playing and forming professional teams in order to take part in a long-awaited dream. After many challenges posed by the previous government, the whistle was blown to announce the beginning of the Sudanese women’s league in a match between the Al-Tahaddi and Al-Difa’ teams. The most important thing was the support of the families, and especially the mothers, who came to see their daughters’ match.  […]

The players looked enthusiastic, having been released from shackles that society had imposed on them, especially with regard to their outfits and general appearance. They see this as a product of the new secular government.

Soccer player:  We now play freely and calmly, just as soccer should be played. This is the outfit that women should play in. We can say that we see there is a secular [government] now.  [..]

Reporter: This scene will spread to other provinces in order to create a new status for female athletes in Sudan.

But, of course, there's strong opposition from the usual suspects:

From the MEMRI transcript:

This clip is a compilation of Sudanese Islamic scholars discussing the recent establishment of a women’s soccer league in Sudan. Sheikh Abu Bakr Adab said in a video that was uploaded to the Sudanese Salafi Path YouTube channel on October 4, 2019 that people in Sudan have no transportation, no food, poor education, and no livelihood, and he questioned if a women’s soccer league is really what Sudan needs at this time. Another scholar, Sheikh Muzammil Faqiri, said in a video that was uploaded to the same channel on October 9 that the establishment of the league is a fierce campaign against Islam by secularists, communists, and atheists who bring nothing but garbage and insolence from infidel countries. Sheikh Faqiri also questioned if a women’s soccer league will solve Sudan’s food and fuel crises, and he said that the physical nature of soccer contradicts women’s God-given femininity, which he said secularists don’t have respect for. A third scholar, Sheikh Muhammad Mustafa Abdel Qader, said in a video that was uploaded to a different YouTube channel on October 12 that the establishment of the league is really about imitating the Jews, Christians, and the infidel countries in the West, as he said the Prophet Muhammad had predicted would happen. He said that it constitutes a “call for adultery” under the pretext of soccer and that the “filthy” women who play in the league only want to play soccer because women play soccer in America and the West.