During the previous summer, women football received a lot of worldwide attention.
The magnificent World Cup tournament in France drew a lot of interest from people around the world and revealed women football to many who weren’t exposed to it until then.
However, women football does not operate in a vacuum. Alongside the great success and reach it attained during the last summer, several affairs involving sexual abuse and harassment of women serve as a reminder to the power relations that still exist in football and other fields of life. On the other hand, women football also reflects the fight for equal rights for women and achievements feminist movements have reached, even in places where it is harder to attain it.
Just last year, one of the most significant affairs in women football was the investigation FIFA led regarding allegations in Afghanistan’s women’s national football team for physical abuse and sexual harassment. Even though the case in Afghanistan was severe, Afghanistan was not alone, and other similar incidents were exposed in Colombia and Ecuador as well.
Some might say that it is a problem concerning solely developing countries. Still, for example, a massive investigation in Canada led by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation found that between 1998 and 2018 there were 40 allegations of sexual offence in amateur football in Canada against coaches. Out of these, 27 coaches were convicted, and as of February 2019, two coaches are still waiting for their trial.
Sexual harassment is still widespread in many countries, but maybe we start to witness the winds of change - largely thanks to the #MeToo campaign. As a result of the investigation FIFA led against the Afghan officials, they decided to ban Sayed Ali Reza Aghazada, the former general secretary of the Afghanistan Football Federation, for five years from any activity. This ban was due to his failure to “report and prevent” sexual abuse incidents within the Afghan women’s national team. Additionally, FIFA banned in June 2019 the AFF’s then-president, Keramuudin Karim, for life, after being found guilty of abusing players from the women national team of Afghanistan between 2013 and 2018. Karim was also fined $1m in addition to his ban.
Other struggles for equality within women football receive many headlines, such as the fight of U.S. women national team players for equal pay or the recent success of Australian women national team to reach equal pay, signed earlier this month. The new steps FIFA took to prevent sexual abuse and harassment in Afghanistan drew much less attention but, in many ways, might ensure something much more fundamental. Although we are still very far from harassment-free environments in many contexts, this step might lead the way to ensure football becomes such.