{"id":547,"date":"2024-06-15T08:24:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-15T08:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dnewsa.wordpress.com\/?p=547"},"modified":"2025-11-20T09:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T09:59:08","slug":"iraqi-womens-football-continues-its-transformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/diwan.news\/indexphp\/2024\/06\/15\/iraqi-womens-football-continues-its-transformation\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraqi women&#8217;s football continues its transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Iraq is the latest country to be included in the FIFA\/Coca-Cola Women&#8217;s World Ranking<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The West Asian nation has made great efforts to develop the discipline<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>FIFA Forward has played its part in the process<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>July 2023 marked the start of a new era for Iraqi women&#8217;s football. With assistance from the <a href=\"https:\/\/inside.fifa.com\/football-development\/fifa-forward\">FIFA Forward Programme<\/a>, the Iraq Football Association (IFA) staged a futsal tournament with 140 players from ten teams in the city of Duhok. But this historic event was just the first step in the IFA\u2019s overall strategy to increase women&#8217;s participation in football and give girls from different parts of the country the opportunity to play the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We\u2019ve started with futsal, but our goal is to build bridges that will eventually lead women to 11-a-side football,&#8221; said Dr. Rasha Talib, a member of the IFA\u2019s executive committee. Now, less than a year later, that goal has been achieved, as evidenced by the highly symbolic inclusion of the national team in the March edition of <a href=\"https:\/\/inside.fifa.com\/en\/fifa-world-ranking\/women\">the FIFA\/Coca-Cola Women&#8217;s World Ranking<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Iraq&#8217;s entry in the ranking, in 172nd place, was a significant event and tangible proof of the progress made by women&#8217;s football in our country,&#8221; explains Sarah Sahebkran, a forward with the national team. &#8220;Iraq now has a place on the women&#8217;s football map. This ranking gives it more visibility and recognition at both local and international level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It will motivate people to support us and encourage even more girls and women to play football,&#8221; she continues. &#8220;It could also provide more opportunities to participate in international tournaments and to progress, as well as to move a little closer to gender equality in the field of sport, and football in particular.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In any case, the IFA has spared no effort in developing the discipline. In particular, it has been behind the creation of multiple championships in all age categories. &#8220;Throughout this transition, we\u2019ve put in place an electronic control system to manage the competitions at each stage,&#8221; explains Dr. Rasha Talib.&nbsp;&#8220;This system ensured compliance with the applicable regulations for participating clubs, the players, the federation and the referees.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because not many Iraqi women wanted \u2013 or were even able \u2013 to play football for logistical reasons or due to a lack of infrastructure, futsal has long served as an alternative for them. And while bridges between futsal and 11-a-side exist and will continue to do so, with a select few able to play internationally in both disciplines, the federation has been careful not to put all its eggs in one basket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"550\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/diwan.news\/gfg\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/diwan.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/gfg.jpg?fit=1940%2C1236&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1940,1236\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"gfg\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/diwan.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/gfg.jpg?fit=300%2C191&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/diwan.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/gfg.jpg?fit=676%2C430&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/site.diwan.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/gfg.webp?w=676&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-550\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>fifa.com \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0635\u062f\u0631<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>July 2023 marked the start of a new era for Iraqi women&#8217;s football. With assistance from the FIFA Forward Programme, the Iraq Football Association (IFA) staged a futsal tournament with 140 players from ten teams in the city of Duhok&#8230;. <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/diwan.news\/indexphp\/2024\/06\/15\/iraqi-womens-football-continues-its-transformation\/\">Continue Reading &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/diwan.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/gfg.jpg?fit=1940%2C1236&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diwan.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diwan.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diwan.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diwan.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diwan.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/diwan.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2781,"href":"https:\/\/diwan.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions\/2781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diwan.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diwan.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diwan.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diwan.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}