Since 2017, Arta has run a sports club for young women in Amuda, where dozens of young women received professional training in football and volleyball, with the aim of supporting local women against extremist and conservative values. A few years later, thanks to these and other initiatives of Arta, not only did women’s sports spread and become accepted in the region, but Amuda’s team won the first national championship for women’s football in Syria in January 2020.
Women's sports in the face of conservative social norms
On 9 January 2021, Radio Arta’s morning programme highlighted a new initiative by local women to form a women’s cycling team which started with the hashtag campaign “I want a bike.” Arta*
On 10 March 2021, the same programme focused on local women’s sports in the region and the difficulties they faced. Trainer Medea Ghanem said, “I have always loved bicycles since childhood, but our society does not accept girls and women riding bicycles. So, I started the campaign and then the project for myself and other women in the area.” Arta *
On 6 June 2021, Arta hosted a local table tennis championship in Amuda. Jumana Masum said that despite the spread of women’s sports, there are still no local facilities to train women. “We used to train in a school, but two years ago, they took the keys from us. So now we can’t train whenever we want. We also don’t have rackets and professional training equipment.” Despite these hardships, “we now have many local pros.” Arta *
Me, Arta and my daughter Karin
“I first discovered Arta FM in 2013 when I fled Aleppo and moved back to my hometown, Amuda. It was amazing to hear the Kurdish language on the radio. Then I was hosted on Radio Arta as a guest to talk about the activity of the Students Union. Soon after, I was offered to join the radio team, where I was trained to be a journalist and broadcaster, along with other local women. Over the years, I have worked at Arta as a reporter, newsreader, producer and presenter. In 2020, I was promoted to Director of Broadcasting, and this is probably the first time for a woman in the region. This year, when I gave birth to my daughter Karin, Arta set up a day-care at their headquarters in Amude and hired a babysitter to look after my daughter while I did my job. This may also be the first of its kind in the region. We’ve come a long way since we started, me and Arta.” – Shereen Ibrahim, Director of Radio Arta FM
XwhY
XwhY is a reader of gender and sexuality related-content that represents the problems and challenges faced by women and LGBTQIA+ communities in Syria and the region.
Gender and sexuality reader Visit page
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