Palestinian girls can!

The event, with the slogan "Empowering women through football: 'YES WE CAN'", was attended by 67 predominantly female participants, including many female football players, coaches, club representatives, teachers, university professors, PFA board members and staff. 

The AFC gave an overview of the organisation’s social responsibility programmes and of the AFC Dream Asia Foundation: The AFC vision and mission states a commitment to use football as a tool for social development and to undertake effective social responsibility campaigns. One of the five pillars of the AFC Foundation is social inclusion, which includes gender equality through football.

Asian women’s football has had a lot of success on the world stage and the women’s game is an important focus for the AFC. The AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa stated: “We are proud of our women’s football record in Asia and the numbers of women and girls taking up football keep growing. Running football on the world’s most populous continent, the AFC has for a long time understood the huge growth potential women’s football has.”

The AFC representative outlined his experiences and impressions of women’s football development in Asia. He emphasised that even in traditional and conservative societies, women’s football is developing with the consent and support of the men. During a recent AFC mission to Gaza, the AFC was also assured by the leadership of the PFA Gaza branch that they support women’s football in Gaza, as long as it is played in accordance with the local traditions and culture.