Gaza's female softball players in league of their own
Baseball and softball fever is sweeping Gaza, where women and girls are learning to swing.
GAZA CITY— Nada Arini, born and raised at the Jabalia Refugee Camp in the north of the Gaza Strip, learned the rules of baseball and softball from the internet. When she joined the first women’s team in the Gaza Strip three years ago, she used whatever gloves she could find and her bat was locally carved, modeled on ones she saw online.
Arini started playing softball after her father died, a few months before she joined the Amwaj Association for Development. It took her six months of training to master her swing.
“My mother and uncle supported me, helping me challenge society's resistance to women playing this game,” Arini told Al-Monitor. "I searched on YouTube for information and rules to develop my skills. I applied what I learned on the field as much as I could."
Softball — often called women’s baseball — first came to the Gaza Strip in late 2016 thanks to former soccer coach Mahmoud Tafesh. Tafesh, who learned the sport in Cairo, rented a space to start training boys and girls who wanted to try it.
