February 9 – In a country where it was shame and un-islamic behavior for women to participate in football, Somalia this weekend graduated a cohort 12 female referees.
On Saturday a gala dinner organised by the Somali Football Federation (SFF) presented the new female referees their official documents as match officials, and officially welcomed them into the football community.
“Our female referees will wear a specially designed football referee clothing that is compatible with the Islamic sharia law. They will be well-covered and will officiate football matches,” said Somali Football Federation president, Ali Abdi Mohamed, during his address at the gala dinner.
“In Somalia, football matches are played after Asir Salat and are finished before Maghrib so our players and officials don’t miss Maghrib prayers. This means we play football and in the meantime we perform our Islamic duties.”
The first Somali female refs, Suweys Ali Jama and Samia Yusuf Omar, completed their training in 2009, also taking FIFA-level training courses organised in neighboring Djibouti in 2010 (it was unsafe for instructors to run courses in Somalia at the time).
Due to the political situation in Somalia, they were unable to continue working as referees. Suweys quit the job and sadly Samia died in the Mediterranean Sea in 2012 while trying to reach Europe.
Now, 15 years later, Somalia has 12 trained female referees. Last year Somalia also trained the first nine female football coaches.
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