With football, hijab-clad girls break new ground

Thrice a week, a dozen or so hijab-clad girls practise at the footballer-churning Mohammed Hussain playground in Mumbai

- Mohammed.Wajihuddin @timesgroup.com

Mumbai: For decades, the Mohammed Hussain playground near YMCA at Madanpura in central Mumbai has been a male domain. Surrounded by skyscrapers dwarfing a few old bungalows, the dusty ‘tikona’ (triangular) maidan has helped make Madanpura the hub of so many famous football players that it has earned the crowded neighborhood the nickname ‘mini-Brazil.’ Unsurprisingly, all the soccer ‘stars’ here so far have been men.

Cut to the present. A dozen or so hijab-clad girls from Madanpura hit this ground thrice a week to learn ‘the beautiful game.’ Amid the raging hijab row, these hijabi girls have kicked the inhibitions that stopped their mothers’ generation from entering what was thought of as the “male arena.”

Ninth grader Nashra Sheikh plays basketball too. But football, she says, is different. “Football teaches us discipline, the value of team work and the courage to face challenges. We play wearing a hijab, and it is not a crime to cover one’s head while we play with feet,” says Sheikh.