12 Muslims create the first women's team in Spain

12 Muslims create the first women's team in Spain

Arrivals from Pakistan and Morocco, from Ma'isah and with Aina Coscollola as project organizer and team coach, it has been possible 

Twelve Muslim girls from the Besòs neighborhood of Barcelona, from Pakistan and Morocco, have created the first female cricket team in Spain. The first seed of the team, called Ma'isah, was born in 2012 with "an integration project for Pakistani immigrants who taught Catalan and values courses," explains the project organizer and team coach, Aina Coscollola.

"Cricket is Pakistan's most famous sport," says team captain Zolaica Zia.

"The girls in the project explained to me that, outside of school, they can't mix with boys," so it was impossible for them to play this sport with them. "So we decided to create a space just for them," recalls Coscollola, who points out that the project already had a soccer team for the boys in the neighborhood. "At first the families distrusted because they didn't know me and didn't know who their daughters were with, and two or three girls were coming," explains the coach.

Of a couple of girls, word of mouth has turned the Ma'isha into a team of twelve people, and in which they have played, for three years, more than 30 girls between 13 and 20 years old, says Coscollola. The team follows the lines of the Ma'isah project, which, through group dynamics, recreational activities and sports, promotes self-esteem, social inclusion and the empowerment of girls. The coach has stressed that nothing would have been possible without the meeting space that represents the project, where she always asks them what they hope to learn. In this sense, Coscollola highlights the case of one of the players, who when he arrived told him that "he wanted to lose his fear of public speaking, and today he gave a little speech and was very happy".

The team has presented a photographic exhibition in the neighborhood house, with images taken by the brother of one of the players who show them happy and proud to combine their customs with the practice of their favorite sport. The district councilor of the Sant Martí district, Josep Maria Montaner, has expressed "emotion and pride" because the project has been carried out and because "the team is a reference that shows us how society is progressing, enhancing interculturality and the relationship between people, which are the strong points of the neighborhood. "

The team gives them the opportunity to "have a space for them," Coscollola explains, since "sometimes this group is made invisible because some of them live a very closed circuit of always going from school to home." Thanks to the Ma'isha project and the cricket team, "they can have a space for them to share concerns and interests and play