{"id":11704,"date":"2007-04-05T13:18:16","date_gmt":"2007-04-05T13:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2007\/04\/05\/british-asian-women-in-football-2\/"},"modified":"2016-01-11T20:31:14","modified_gmt":"2016-01-11T20:31:14","slug":"british-asian-women-in-football-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2007\/04\/05\/british-asian-women-in-football-2\/","title":{"rendered":"British Asian Women in Football"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Interview: Ayesha Abdeen<\/h3>\n
Last month we brought you the first part of our special feature on British Asian women in football. We spoke to photographer Jaskirt Dhaliwal who revealed what led her to the football lens and why she believed generational attitudes within her community were changing towards the inclusion of British Asian women in football. <\/strong><\/div>\n

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In Part 2 of our feature we talk to two British Asian players, Aisha Ahmad and Ayesha Abdeen who both represented Britain in Iran\u2019s 2005 Women\u2019s Islamic Games for the British Muslim Women\u2019s Futsal team. <\/strong><\/div>\n

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\"\"PART 2<\/font><\/strong><\/div>\n

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Ayesha Abdeen, football player for the British Muslim Women\u2019s Futsal team and Vice Chairperson of the Muslim Women\u2019s Sport Foundation.<\/font><\/strong><\/div>\n

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\u201cTogether with my team mates, present & future, we will develop the greatest British Muslim Women\u2019s Futsal team ever to compete in the Women\u2019s Islamic Games\u201d<\/em><\/div>\n

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For Ayesha Abdeen, football is in her blood. From an early age when she attended a football academy in Richmond, south-west London she has always wanted to make it to the top of the beautiful game. Playing for the British Muslim Women\u2019s Futsal team gave her that opportunity and she\u2019s never looked back. She admits she wants to \u2018develop the greatest British Muslim Women\u2019s Futsal team ever to compete in the Women\u2019s Islamic Games\u2019 and her passion shouldn\u2019t be underestimated. <\/div>\n

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Speaking to the Asian Today she reveals how the team fell perfectly into her love for the game and her religion. <\/div>\n

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How did you get involved in the team?<\/strong><\/div>\n

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I got involved in the team after hearing of the Futsal team that competed at the 2001 Islamic Games. I had just finished college where I spent two years training at a women\u2019s football academy and was at a stage where I was contemplating on how I was going to continue playing football whilst also trying to learn and focus more on my \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 religion. Luckily for me this team popped up.<\/div>\n

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What reaction do you get when you mention you\u2019re a member of the team?<\/strong><\/div>\n

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In my community most people know me as the sporty one and when they found out I represented Britain they are genuinely interested to know more about the team and what it was like to compete at an international sporting event. For some though, mainly young men, when they come to know I represented Britain, they are quite impressed at first, but when they hear it was a Muslim team or an Islamic Women\u2019s Games they back track slightly. Obviously for them it\u2019s not as impressive as competing at the Olympics or playing for the England team, but what they don\u2019t realise is that the level of competition at the Islamic Games can be compared to the Olympics.<\/div>\n

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What does it mean to you to play for your country?<\/strong><\/div>\n

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Playing for Great Britain gives me immense pride and playing for the British Muslim women\u2019s team is an added bonus. I not only get to represent my multicultural nation but also my religion which in turn means I am truly representing who I am – a British Muslim woman, and it can\u2019t get any better than that. It couldn\u2019t be a more natural role. <\/div>\n

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Women\u2019s football is still miles behind in comparison to men\u2019s football in the <\/strong>UK<\/strong>. In what ways can the profile of the women\u2019s game be enhanced?<\/strong><\/div>\n

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Women\u2019s football is the fastest growing sport in the UK. For its profile to be enhanced we need to see success on an international stage, which I think is not too far away. We\u2019ve already seen the development and level of players such as Kelly Smith, Rachel Yankey etc, and with time there\u2019s no doubt many more players as skilful as them will come about and enhance the game further. In terms of enhancing the profile of football for Muslim women, there is a much bigger challenge. Luckily we now know the path to follow – Futsal. Futsal is a game that brought the world the likes of Ronaldo, Ronaldhino, Roberto Carlos and it is the perfect game to get Muslim women into football. As an indoor sport, Muslim women can play comfortably without compromising their Islamic beliefs, they can develop their game in a way like no other and above it all, unlike with the 11-a-side game they can compete.\u00a0Futsal is unknown to the vast majority in the UK, however, throughout the rest of the world it can boast being bigger than 11-a-side. <\/div>\n

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What are your future plans as part of the British Women\u2019s Football team?<\/strong><\/div>\n

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My plans for the future would be to train hard and prepare for the next International Women\u2019s Islamic Games in 2009. No-one\u2019s place is safe on the team yet. Inshaallah together with my team mates, present & future, and we will develop the greatest British Muslim Women\u2019s Futsal team ever to compete.<\/div>\n

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Related Articles:<\/font><\/strong><\/div>\n

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Interview: Aisha Ahmad<\/div>\n

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Interview: Jaskirt Dhaliwal<\/a><\/div>\n

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In Part 3 of British Asian Women in Football\u2026<\/font><\/strong><\/div>\n

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We speak to Rimla Akhtar, the woman behind the Muslim Women\u2019s Sports Foundation<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n

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Coming soon on www.theasiantoday.com<\/a> <\/span><\/u>\u00a0and available in the May issue of The Asian Today<\/em><\/div>\n

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Interview: Ayesha Abdeen Last month we brought you the first part of our special feature on British Asian women in football. We spoke to photographer Jaskirt Dhaliwal who revealed what led her to the football lens and why she believed generational attitudes within her community were changing towards the inclusion of British Asian women in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[92],"class_list":["post-11704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-contributors","tag-british-asian-women-in-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}