On the sidelines of a small football pitch at a university in Cairo, Hanan Hassan remembers starting out as a referee and the response she got from one female player’s mother.
“In a loud voice she yelled as she was looking towards me: ‘god bless you my daughter and I hope that my own daughter becomes like you’,” Hassan recalls, proudly. For years, women referees in Egypt have officiated at lower-level football matches but now have their sights set on the premier league.
