“As a prominent Palestinian poet
Mahmoud Darwish said ‘for me freedom is to be what they don’t want me to be’, I
do follow his words and here lies the mystery of my success story.”
30 years ago a simple couple, a man who was a
floor-layer and a woman who was a nursery school teacher, decided not to have
any further kids having 2 already for the sake of their poor economic
condition. 9 months later, a girl was born and was meant to break all the
barriers starting from breaking the oath of the couple. The fortune of a nation
went on to grow in the narrow lanes of Palestine and no one even noticed it
then unless she meant it.
From the age of almost 10, she
was given the name ‘tomboy’ by the neighborhood. As she started juggling the
football along with the boys. In Palestine, football was not a game of girls at
that time, it was kind of a boy’s occupational hazard. But still, none would
have dared to stop the tomboy from playing football, not even his father. She
got herself injured and being scolded by her father but then came up with new
injuries and again a bunch of father’s scolding. All was in vain. She was not
to be stopped until she wanted to st…
Uhhh…enough! Look, seriously I
hate this job. This writing thing. But in fact, today, I mean, tonight if I
don’t write it down, I would be ashamed of myself for not having it written.
This was meant to be a biography but this woman shouldn’t be kept in such a
jerk way of explaining a character. Let me put some questions to you and as it
is not an fb chat-box, I’m gonna answer it afterwards. Here we go,
- What does prison mean to you?
- .How does it feel being in a prison from birth to death?
- Can you end up yourself having the greatest test of happiness staying within the prison?
Well, it may seem awkward but the
answer of the three questions is a one simple name. But before that, let’s
detour. In 1980’s Palestine was a place of war. A woman of that time in that
place meant to be a prisoner in her own state. She couldn’t even go to give the
most valuable exam of her career just because of some raid as there was
shooting all around the corner of the city. They have to go to the university
in ambulances. I am talking about Bethlehem. You may seem that prison means a
room behind some iron bars but for the then Palestinians it was there home. If
you were born in that culture, you were in prison. If you were born in a
Palestinian family, you were in prison. If you were born here, you would die in
prison. Here lies the answer of my first question and for the second one, I
guess I don’t need to answer that one.
For the third one it needs a
legend to act, a warrior to perform and a soldier to fight against the odds.
What if I say our ‘tomboy’, in 2003, ended up having 5 girls playing football
and winning the University Champion’s cup? What if I say, the prisoner of
having been prisoned along with her parents and other 4 brothers and sisters ended
up becoming a captain of a women’s national football team? And what if I say,
she didn’t able to play her first match and was unable to attend any matches
for her team consistently for the next year also? Yes, it hurts! It hurts when
you feel so high and suddenly fall from sky. Although as she suffered from her
injuries in 2009, she started telecasting kids football show. She caught up
with the FIFA and later on became an important member of FIFA.
Starting with 5 girls, the
‘tomboy’ ended up creating a national football team of 20 women in the side.
Now, in 2014-15 season, Palestine is witnessing over a hundred women soccer
player from almost 19 clubs. It was a start from the end. A journey from the
ashes. A heist from the nil.
Now, guess who I was talking
about. She, who made the prison a detour of a new era, is none other than, the
‘tomboy’ of the neighborhood in Bethlehem, Honey Thaljieh, captain of the
Palestine Women’s Football team.
I’m writing this as I was
youtubing and ended up having listened and became overwhelmed by her last words
of a 16 minutes’ speech of her in Zurich in 2014. Though it wasn’t her own
words but the way she applied the words in her own life made me wonder that how
on earth can this not be her own words?
“…for me freedom is to be what
they don’t want me to be…”
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