Syria’s Raqqa hosts first female FIBA championship
RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – On Monday,Education Committee of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) in the city of Raqqa, northern Syria, organized the first FIBA championship for females with the participation of girls from eight schools.
The championship was sponsored by Women for Peace, a local civil society organization, in cooperation with Sports Federation.
Muhammad Zuhair, an official in Raqqa Education Committee, said the main goal of this championship is to activate sport at schools and form a basketball team after choosing talented girls, and training and rehabilitating them.
Zuhair told North Press the championship lasts two days, and on the closing day, a big game will be organized in addition to another one to identify the teams that come third and fourth.
Maha Muhammad, a participant, expressed her satisfaction over the championship and hoped her team reaches the finals.
Muhammad has been playing basketball for a while, and she loves it and wishes that her team will be among those that will be awarded.
Raqqa, which once was the capital of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) Caliphate in 2014, has hosted several sport events including those with female participants since its liberation in 2017.
The AANES was first formed in 2014 in the Kurdish-majority regions of Afrin, Kobani and Jazira in northern Syria following the withdrawal of the government forces. Later, it was expanded to Manbij, Tabqa, Raqqa, Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor after the SDF defeated ISIS militarily there.