Diyar for Women’s Sports also believes in transforming lives through creating an equal opportunity for Palestinian girls to be proactive in mobilizing for women’s rights and advocating equal participation in male dominated practices such as football. Diyar for Women’s Sport considers sport to be a healthy venue and fun practice that can derive psychological, physiological and sociological benefits of sports participation. In specific, Diyar focuses its work on the marginalized segment of the Palestinian community especially women. Sport is considered to be an empowerment passage to equipping young girls through professional football training to overcome daily hardships and stresses living in a male dominant society. Sports in general and football in specific advance the status of women as it challenges long existent stereotypes that women are not physically able to perform hard muscular duties. Football also strengthens the bonds created by team cohesion that are to fortify internal support systems between team members. Sport as well is a great tool to build personal discipline and commitment toward positive change. It helps the girls to excel in their academic achievement and personal relationships as it helps to positively recreate spaces for successes in many life arenas including academics, family bonds, personality formation and social relationships. Positive competition existing in soccer enables the girls’ acknowledgment of the possibility of failure and the importance of working hard for fruitful achievements. This helps to build a positive self ‐portrait and self confidence as it strengthens the girls’ self image and the feeling of being able to compete and win.
