A year ago, Egyptian national boxing team member Hadeer El-Qadi (a pseudonym) sustained a left shoulder injury during the semi-final match of the National Boxing Championship held at the Olympic Center in the Maadi district of Cairo. Despite the injury, she continued the match and won first place in the final match the following day.

Hadeer, 24, recalls the details of her injury: “The training before and during the championship was intense, putting a lot of strain on my body. During the semi-final match, my shoulder dislocated, but I immediately reset it and continued the match. The next day, I competed in the final match with one arm and won, securing first place in the Women’s National Championship.”

After the match, the on-site doctor at the Olympic Center, responsible for athletes in individual sports, diagnosed Hadeer with shoulder tendonitis, which requires at least two weeks of complete rest and avoiding strenuous activities and exercises, along with appropriate medical treatment.

The following day, Hadeer was required to continue training based on the instructions of the national team’s head coach. Hadeer says, “When I complained about my injury and requested a rest period as advised by the doctor so my shoulder could heal, I was told that if the federation found out, they might remove me from the team, and once you’re out, you can’t get back in.” She continues, “I was forced to continue training, which worsened my shoulder injury and affected my performance in subsequent matches.”

About two months later, the African Boxing Championship took place in Dakar, Senegal, serving as a qualifier for the Paris 2024 Olympics, with Egypt participating. Hadeer faced criticism from the federation for losing one of her matches in the championship. Despite winning the first round of that match, at the start of the second round, Hadeer’s shoulder dislocated again. “After my injury, I continued the round for three minutes, performing with only my right hand, but in the end, I lost the match.”

Accusations of Negligence and Discrimination

On July 27, 2023, the organizing committee for the boxing competitions at the 33rd Olympic Games in Paris 2024 decided to disqualify Egyptian national team boxer Yomna Ayad from the under 54 kg weight category competition for failing to pass the weigh-in by exceeding the required weight by about 700 grams, leading to her elimination against the Uzbekistani opponent.

The statement from the Egyptian Boxing Federation regarding the disqualification of the first Egyptian female boxer to qualify for the Olympics in the sport sparked widespread controversy, particularly among feminist circles. The Super Women Initiative issued a statement condemning the federation’s unprofessional and inappropriate handling of the matter, citing gross negligence in failing to provide a suitable diet that considers the athlete’s needs as a woman. The medical team, not the athlete, was directly responsible for this.

Aya Mounir, a feminist activist and executive director of the Super Women Foundation, spoke to Daraj about the discrimination faced by some Egyptian female athletes during the Olympics, which were held from July 26 to August 11 of this year. She stated that the Egyptian Olympic Committee completely ignored the attacks on female athletes and should have issued an official apology regarding the Egyptian Boxing Federation’s statement on Yomna Ayyad’s case, which Mounir described as disgraceful, as they used terms that portrayed women’s menstrual cycles as a though they were a curse or a bad mark.

Mounir added that the committee should have also issued a statement regarding the attacks on Egyptian fencer Nada Hafez, who revealed that she competed in the Olympics while pregnant. The statement should have clarified that Nada was fully eligible to compete in the Olympics and had done nothing wrong by participating while pregnant, emphasizing that Nada is not the first athlete to do so; in recent years, athletes have competed in global championships while pregnant.

Female Athletes Are More Vulnerable to Abuse

A study by World Athletics on online abuse during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics found that 87% of female athletes were targeted by online abuse on social media, with 16 out of 23 athletes who received abuse being women. Of the 132 abusive posts identified, 115 were directed at female athletes, according to the study.

A recent European study also indicated that girls face higher rates of gender-based psychological violence in sports compared to boys. Girls in sports experience psychological violence in the form of demeaning comments, body shaming, unfair media coverage, and funding disparities, in addition to the constant scrutiny of women’s bodies in sports through sportswear and physiological testing.

Larine Ahmed, a 19-year-old martial arts coach and athlete, says she is the only female in a team of male athletes, so she always has to be cautious. Larine explains how she constantly reminds the boys on her team that she is like a “sister” to them in an attempt to protect herself from any transgressions during training, which has been successful to some extent, but not entirely. “When a new guy joins the training, he might see a lone girl in a team of guys and think she’s ‘easy,’ but I always defend myself with my hands against any transgression,” says Larine.

Larine recalls an incident of harassment in June, while she was training against a new player before an open festival organized by the Egyptian Kickboxing Federation. She felt the player’s hand movements were crossing the line, so she immediately struck him hard and ended the match.

In 2020, the Ministry of Youth and Sports announced the launch of its internal policy to combat harassment in collaboration with the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ). The policy aims to provide a harassment-free work environment and create safe spaces for youth to combat all forms of violence and discrimination.

As part of the joint cooperation between the ministry and the German agency, several projects have been implemented, including the “Youth Against Harassment” initiative, an educational program aimed at raising awareness among girls and boys, enhancing their individual capabilities, and spreading public awareness about the negative consequences and effects of harassment.

Challenges Faced by Female Athletes

Larine’s family, whose daughter has won first place in the World Championships for kickboxing and kung fu three times, has never opposed her participation in sports. They have always been supportive and encouraging, given that many members of her family are also involved in sports. Despite this, Larine often faces mocking looks and comments like “Are you a boy or a girl?” and “Your place is in the kitchen.” Larine explains that this is due to the environment of the village she comes from, where girls marry at a young age, making what she does seem strange and unfamiliar.

Larine needs nearly 10,000 EGP per month, equivalent to about 200 USD, to cover her training needs, including clothes, a high-protein diet, and various vitamins. This is in addition to the subscription fees for national championships organized by the Egyptian Kickboxing Federation, which cost about 700 EGP, equivalent to about 15 USD, as well as the “weigh-in committee” fee required before each championship.

Dalia Ahmed (a pseudonym), a 21-year-old kickboxing coach, agrees with Larine about the high monthly costs of training for individual sports. According to Dalia, she often has to forgo a suitable diet due to high prices, but she cannot skimp on essential training gear, such as protective headgear, leg guards, and mouth guards, all of which are also expensive.

In June of last year, United Nations experts called for an end to discrimination against women in sports and for effective measures to stop human rights violations related to eligibility rules for competing in women’s sports.

According to the UN statement, “Sport should not be influenced by discrimination. All women should be able to participate on an equal footing, and their sexual characteristics should not be used as a reason to exclude them.” The experts emphasized that states are obligated under international human rights law to protect female athletes, including those with different sexual characteristics, from undergoing tests and medical interventions that violate principles of human dignity, equality, autonomy, and physical and psychological integrity.

Hadeer, the national boxing team member, recounts how she faced criticism from the team’s psychologist when she had to miss a morning practice due to menstrual pain while attending a closed camp in Morocco in preparation for the 2023 African Championship. “In the morning, I got permission from the coach to skip the morning training, but I was surprised when the psychologist scolded me and accused me of being irresponsible. She said: ‘What if you get your period during the match? Are you going to skip the match?'”

Sports critic Saeed Ali comments on the disparity in attention between women’s sports and men’s teams, attributing it to the fact that sports, as an industry, primarily rely on marketing, which caters to public preference. As a result, the bulk of the industry and sponsorship focuses on men’s teams, where community interest lies. Nevertheless, Saeed believes that the growing international interest in women’s sports in recent years has had a positive impact on Egypt and other Arab countries, leading to increased attention to women’s sports in the region.

Saeed refers to the incident involving Yomna Ayyad’s disqualification, questioning the role of the Ministry of Youth and Sports in monitoring the selection process for athletes qualifying for international championships, as well as the standards set by the ministry to ensure proper athlete preparation and support. He describes the situation as poor organization and the assignment of tasks to unqualified individuals.

Recently, Hadeer discovered that the Olympic Center doctor had misdiagnosed her injury. When she visited a specialist in her governorate, she was informed that she suffers from recurrent dislocation of her left shoulder, which, due to negligence, has led to complications requiring urgent surgery.

Attempts to reach the spokesperson for the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Mohamed El-Shazly, for comments were unsuccessful at the time of publishing this report.