Australia’s first all-Muslim women football team is preparing itself to make history when it plays a historic curtain-raiser at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) next month.
“To have an opportunity to play at the MCG, even if it is a curtain raiser, is something most people would dream of,” Amna Karra-Hassan, Auburn Giants founder and player said.
“To have an opportunity to play at the MCG, even if it is a curtain raiser, is something most people would dream of,” Amna Karra-Hassan, Auburn Giants founder and player said.
“But for a Sydney girl who didn’t grow up with a love of the game but has a love of the game now, I’m blown away.”
The Auburn Giants was started five years ago in the soccer and rugby league heartland of western Sydney.
The Muslim team was offered an opportunity to take to the field before Collingwood’s clash with Greater Western Sydney on June 14.
It will be the first time a Muslim women’s team has played before Australia Football League (AFL) crowd at the MCG.
Years after launching her team, Karra-Hassan says the game is helping society.
“There is no doubt in my mind that for every negative story about Muslim people there needs to be 10 more that are positive to counter that,” she said.
“And to be part of the positive narrative, for media to be interested and for people to want to hear something other than all the negative stuff inspires hope.”
The AFL is the highest-level professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football.
According to market research, the AFL is the second-most-watched sporting event in Australia, behind cricket.
Last year, the league agreed to introduce multi-faith prayer rooms at playgrounds to respect Australia’s cultural diversity.
Islam sees hijab as an obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying one’s affiliations.
Muslims, who have been in Australia for more than 200 years, make up 1.7 percent of its 20-million population.
Islam is the country’s second largest religion after Christianity.
In post 9/11 Australia, Muslims have been haunted with suspicion and have had their patriotism questioned.
A 2007 poll taken by the Issues Deliberation Australia (IDA) think-tank found that Australians basically see Islam as a threat to the Australian way of life.
A recent governmental report revealed that Muslims are facing deep-seated Islamophobia and race-based treatment like never before
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