A former Somalia women’s captain and football project co-ordinator was subject to a barrage of online abuse after she created a women-only screening for the final of the 2024 Euros.
Iqra Ismail, 24, from London, told Yahoo News the screening had been intended to create a safe space for women apprehensive of attending available screenings of the England vs Spain game.
“A lot of people showed me videos of screenings and people watching the games and the sense of community that comes in when watching them together,” she said. “But they would naturally be in heavily male-dominated space or with the heavy presence of alcohol.”
Determined for women to have a space to enjoy the game together, the female refugee football project coordinator for QPR’s community trust set up an all-women screening in Acton, west London.
Ismail, who was named in Forbes magazine’s ’30 under 30′ brightest young entrepreneurs list in 2019, had anticipated a maximum of 50 attendees but was surprised when more than 120 women bought tickets.
For many of them, Ismail said, it was the first time they had watched football in a group setting outside of their family homes. They sang football chants and cheered loudly as England slumped to another heartbreaking defeat in the latter stages of an international tournament.
She said some fans played football during the half-time break while others unpacked Southgate’s strategy or channelled their “inner child” in the nearby playground.
But after she shared a video of the screening on Instagram, she was subjected to abuse from people who didn’t understand the need for a women-only screening.
Ismail said: “It took a bit of a dark turn, and it just ended up with loads of racist and Islamophobic comments.”
Primarily, the abuse aimed at Ismail’s event came from men who made hateful remarks about her religion, race and gender.
Some used the comments section of the post to call for men’s only spaces, and one racist comment seen by Yahoo News had more than 450 likes.
Ismail said: “Sometimes it is a bit hard to actively see all of these people coming together to kind of slate me and the work that we’re doing so it can be difficult, but I think it isn’t enough to stop me from the path that I’m on.”
The female refugee football project coordinator for QPR said she hopes that one day, more Muslim women in hijabs will play football at the highest level.
She said: “Obviously, we’ve got to be in a space where we feel comfortable enough to do it. I think with things like France banning the hijab, it can be challenging to step into that space knowing the abuse and the comments that will be made, much like my post.”
Ismail is already well known in her community and has worked on the inclusion of visible Muslim women in football. She has been a strong advocate for women’s football and was a recipient of the Football Black List award, which celebrates black excellence in football, aged 19.
In 2019, she joined as the captain of Golden Girls FC, Somalia’s first-ever women’s football club to play internationally, including in the Human Rights Cup tournament held in Cape Town.
Ismail had noticed Somali women talking about wanting to play football, so she created NUR (Never Underestimate Resilience) FC in 2019. Later, it partnered with a local men’s team and is now called Hilltop WFC.
She said women have always been interested in football, but have only recently been encouraged to act on their interest. She said: “I think a lot of people kind of secretly kept up, a lot of people have had a desire to participate in sport, and they liked watching football at home.”
