Women’s Football in Disadvantaged Neighbourhoods in Morocco
Social and cultural aspects (family socialization, dominant perception of the female body, gendered spaces) contribute to the explanation of the low rate of sports practice among Moroccan women, particularly in certain sports considered “masculine”. Based on a qualitative survey of a group of young female footballers aged between 14 and 20, their relatives and the leaders of sports associations, this article will analyze the modes of socialization, perceptions of the body and the construction of ‘masculine’ dispositions in two disadvantaged working-class neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Rabat. In these neighbourhoods, women’s football is frequently considered as a practice that goes against the dominant norms that risk modifying the girls’ body hexis. At the same time, the masculine appearance of some female footballers is sometimes interpreted as a “loss of femininity” and questions the binarity of gender both in the neighbourhoods studied and within society. Consequently, the sporting commitment of these young female footballers is negotiated on the margins of dominant gender conventions.