Libya bans women’s football team from major tournament

Groups of people protest over women\'s rights in country London  - Arab Today The Libyan women’s football team has been banned from participating in a major tournament in Germany next week, British newspaper The Guardian reported on Friday. The country’s football association (FA) cited the holy month of Ramadan as the official reason for the withdrawal.
The Libyan women were due to play teams from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Tunisia and Germany in Discover Football, a tournament funded by the German government and publicised as the biggest gathering of Middle Eastern women\'s footballers since the Arab Spring in 2011.
According to the players, the FA told the team it cannot fly to Germany on Saturday, citing concerns that it takes place within Ramadan.
\"The federation said you cannot play in Germany because of the need for fasting,\" said midfielder Hadhoum el-Alabed. \"We want to go but they say you cannot go.\"
“It is Ramadan,” FA Secretary General Nasser Ahmed told the newspaper. “We are not against women playing football.”
El-Alabed said the ban had shattered hopes that the fall of the late Colonel Muammar Qaddafi would bring change. \"Other teams can play [in Berlin], so why not us? If you could see the girls when they were told, they were all crying.\"
Threats from radicals have already forced the team to train in secret, constantly change venues and deploy armed guards.
In June, Ansar al-Sharia, the militia some suspect of being responsible for the killing of US ambassador, Chris Stevens in Benghazi last September, issued a statement saying it \"severely condemned\" women\'s football.
\"This is something we cannot have because it does not confirm with sharia law,\" it said. \"It invites women to show off and wear clothes that are inappropriate.\"
Salim Jabar, one of Libya\'s most famous television preachers, has demanded the women\'s team disband, saying it was against the teachings of Islam.
\"This team consists of tall, good-looking young girls, and that\'s the last thing this country needs,\" he said in a sermon broadcast from his Benghazi mosque. \"For the first day that she [a Libyan woman] signed up for this team, she has sold herself and brought shame on her family.\"
Women\'s football was allowed during the Qaddafi regime, but kept a lower profile with teams playing in gyms to avoid being seen in public.
However since the revolution, the international team has been allowed to play 11-a-side, but its higher profile has made it a thorn in the eye of extremists.
\"They [radicals] say to us you are no good, they intimidate us,\" team captain Fadwa el-Bahi, was cited as saying.
Coach Emmad el-Fadeih said to The Guardian that the team had complied with FA rules stating that only unmarried women could travel to Germany, and then only if their father or guardian gave written consent.
Al-Bahi said that she thought the team should be held up as a model of cooperation in a country only just emerging from years of violence.
“This team is an example of reconciliation. We have former Qaddafi girls and former rebels, side-by-side,” she said.
According to human rights groups the problems facing Libya\'s female footballers are part of a larger struggle by women who have fought to win their rights. This month, the Libyan congress, dominated by the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood\'s Justice and Construction party, gave just six seats to women in a 60-strong commission formed to write a new constitution.
German organisers said Libya’s place in the tournament will remain open. \"We have heard that the football association decided that they are not allowed to go,\" said Discover Football spokeswoman Johanna Kosters \"We will wait and see if they get on the plane.\"