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Football

Bangladesh Women's Football: From fighting violence to winning trophies

The Bangladeshi U20 women's team recently won the SAFF U-20 Women's Championship 2023, but how did they reach this level?

Bangladesh Womens Football: From fighting violence to winning trophies
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Bangladesh women's U-20 team

By

Pritish Raj

Updated: 11 Feb 2023 3:33 AM GMT

The BSSS Mostafa Kamal Stadium in Bangladesh erupted after the final whistle of the final match of the SAFF U-20 Women's Championship. The hosts had just defeated Nepal 3-1 to lift the title of SAFF U-20 Women's Championship.

With this title win, Bangladesh now holds U-19, U-20, and Senior SAFF Women's Championship trophies.

Immense Growth of Women's Football

Within just 13 years of playing their first international game and 12 years of the launch of the Women's League, Bangladesh is the regional champion across age groups.

Bangladesh's first-ever women's tournament was held in 2007 under FIFA's Vision Asia Program. The popularity and success of the tournament led to more school tournaments and the launch of a national league.

Despite things happening at the ground level, the women's national team of Bangladesh was ignored till the late 2000s. The team played its first-ever international game in 2010 against Nepal during the 2010 South Asian Games.

It was in 2012 when the national federation started building a structure for women's football. From introducing programs at the grassroots level to putting a fully functional domestic tournament in place, BFF started with the basics.

Another tournament in the form of the Bangamata Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib Gold Cup was introduced which led to players coming from the whole country to play and it has led to a strong pipeline for the national team.

The hard work and systematic work put in the women's football bore fruit when Bangladesh broke India's dominance to win their maiden SAFF Women's Championship and created history.

Battling religious fanaticism and negligence

The journey of women's football in Bangladesh goes back twenty years back to 2003, after FIFA asked the country to focus on women's football.

Indian Football Association from West Bengal sent a 20-member team in 2003 after an invitation from Bangladesh Football Federation for a three-match tourney. However, the tourney was cut short as the team was forced to return to India due to protests and violence by religious fanatics.

A report from Mid Day, 2003 reads that religious fanatics protested against women's football and termed it as disgraceful and obscene. The first match in Jessore was played despite the protests and it had 10,000 people in attendance.

Another report from the same time reads that due to security threats by protestors, the second match was played in an empty stadium in Mirpur. The team from West Bengal had to return without playing their last game as the demonstrations and anti-women movement intensified.

The Bangladeshi team had lost both games but the spark to play football was ignited and twenty years later, it's burning ever so brightly.

From those violent evenings in Jessore to a full-house noisy stadium in Dhaka, Bangladeshi Women's football has covered miles in just a span of 20 years and remains as the sporting story of decade.

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