{"id":113665,"date":"2026-01-27T07:50:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T07:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/113665\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T07:50:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T07:50:20","slug":"somalias-ocean-queens-set-to-achieve-the-culturally-unthinkable-with-international-debut-in-jordan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/113665\/","title":{"rendered":"Somalia’s Ocean Queens set to achieve the culturally unthinkable with international debut in Jordan"},"content":{"rendered":"

January 26 \u2013 Somali women\u2019s national football team are set to make their international debut, marking a significant milestone in Somalia\u2019s footballing history where the women\u2019s game has been suppressed by religious beliefs.<\/p>\n

The Ocean Queens U-17 squad will lay in the Arab U-17 tournament to be held in Jordan from March 26.<\/p>\n

The debut of the Somali women would have been unheard of just a few years ago and where even men were once banned from playing by militants who frequently football as un-Islamic or a satanic act. Girls were prevented by their parents from playing under the cultural crackdown.<\/p>\n

The change is in large part to the president of Somali Football Federation (SFF), Ali Abdi Mohamed\u2019s perseverance in changing perceptions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have worked tirelessly to get our women\u2019s national team on track. It was a long and difficulty journey to persuade our community that women\u2019s football is not a crime in the Islamic stance and is not shame as long as women dress accordingly,\u201d Abdi Mohamed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe did everything in our capacity to develop women\u2019s football, we introduced grassroots programs and provided the necessary trainings and equipment to our female footballers. This is a proud moment for me and for the entire Somali football family,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am committed to making sure that our team gets the resources they need to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Somalia now boasts dozens of women\u2019s football clubs and the first official national football league.<\/p>\n

\u201cA few years back, I sat down and thought of the creation of women\u2019s football. I knew there were many challenges, but I decided to kick start the program with awareness campaigns, because there was nothing wrong with it, but cultural barriers needed to be removed and that was our starting point,\u201d concluded the SFF president.<\/p>\n

Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1769497571labto1769497571ofdlr1769497571owedi1769497571sni@n1769497571osloh1769497571cin.l1769497571uap1769497571<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"January 26 \u2013 Somali women\u2019s national football team are set to make their international debut, marking a significant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":{"0":"post-113665","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-queens","12":"tag-queens-headlines","13":"tag-queens-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}