‘The rate of certified women football players is 1 percent in Turkey’

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Aimed at introducing football to girls at a young age, the "First Society" project, hosted by İstanbul Beşiktaş Municipality, has been launched.

With several events, children broke down the symbolic wall built with prejudices and cliches of 'girls cannot play football'. The girls had the opportunity to play with Beşiktaş footballer Josef de Souza and Beşiktaş Vodafone Volleyball players Sevgi Çınar, İrem Eren and Melike Öztürk.

50 girls have been granted certificates due to their participation at the end of the project. While Josef De Souza distributed the certificates, Girls in the Field (Kızlar Sahada) Founding Partner Kiraz Öcal said:

According to the Global Gender Gap 2021 report, Turkey ranks 133rd among 156 countries in terms of gender equality. Similarly, the 2021 data shows that the rate of certified women football players in our country is 1 percent. Half of the world's and Turkey's population is an active football audience. When we look at these numbers, we actually get two very important messages: Firstly, we see a football world where women and girls, who constitute half of the population, are not included. In that sense, our situation is really grave. On the other hand, we also see that it is a very big opportunity.

There are many things that can be done to increase women's participation in football, empowering girls and establishing equality. We, as the Girls in the Field, have been measuring our works for the past five years and we see that the social impact, change and transformation caused by the works in this field is very high. From this point, we, with Adidas, set out on a wonderful journey that we believe in so that football is made more accessible, it can be introduced to girls at a very young age and they can score their first points against prejudices.

Applications for the "First Society" (İlk Toplum) project jointly run by the Girls in Field (Kızlar Sahada) and Adidas, can be made on kizlarsahada.com/ilktopum until November 22, 2021. (AÖ/SD)