Football in Social Advocacy

“Football is passion, football is emotion, football is discipline, football is fair that is why we have used this game to advocate against gender based violence,” said Ms. Bandana Rana, Executive Chair of Saathi (NGO) addressing the program held in Russian Culture Centre, Kamal Pokhari on the last day of 16 day campaign on December 10^th, 2012.

Football is a very popular sport in Nepal; it is loved by everyone, has reached every corner of the country and easily understood by all groups.  To raise awareness against gender based violence it has become an effective medium. Case in point is the joint campaign of Saathi and All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) with slogans: “Scoring Goal for Social Cause, Our Goal: Stop Violence Against Women” and “Respect Women…Be a Real Man”.

(http://www.saathi.org.np/images/stories/content/ANFA-Saathi_004.jpg)

Asia Football Confederation’s (AFC) Dream Asia Movement and Enabling State Program are the supporters of the campaign that was launched on February 2011, with an aim of engaging men to promote gender equality and prevent gender based violence. Out of the 47 countries, Saathi and ANFA’s partnership has also been declared as one of the five nominees for AFC’s Social Responsibility Award.  

A book launch and panel discussion was organised by Saathi and ANFA in collaboration with Himal TV. The program started with the book launch by Former Chief Secretary Dr. Madhab Prasad Ghimire, ANFA President and AFC Vice President Mr. Ganesh Thapa, Member Secretary of ANFA Mr. Yubaraj Lama, President of Coach Association and former National Team Captain Mr. Raju Shakya, and Former National Team Captain Mr. Hari Khadka. The football shaped book chronicles the joint effort of ANFA and Saathi to eradicate gender based violence.

The book launch was followed by the panel discussion. The objective of the discussion was to encourage people to emulate the concept of fair play in football and practice the same in maintaining respect, mutual relation and peaceful environment at home.

Nepali society is a patriarchal society where the head of a family is a man and he makes every decision. Women are supposed to be submissive and follow orders. In a family, boys and girls are not treated equally; boys are given large portions of food, sent to better schools and given more pocket money and freedom. This is the seed from which the discrimination grows. In extreme case scenario, the most recent example is that of Shiva Hasmi who was burnt to death for rejecting a marriage proposal.

In order to reach out to the masses through this campaign five personalities from the Nepali football scene were selected as role models: Ganesh Thapa, Pradeep Maharjan, Raju Shakya, Hari Khadka and Santosh Saunkhala. They were highlighted as shining examples of ideal men who have committed to end violence against women beginning from their home, work and society.

Many men in our society help their wives and counterparts but they refrain from doing so in public. They are apprehensive about the reactions they might get from their friends and family as a henpecked husband. Former National Football Team Captain Hari Khadka shared a similar experience, “I routinely helped my wife but I was ashamed to let it out in public.  After getting involved in the campaign I became more confident. One morning I went on my terrace to hang washed clothes; observing which my neighbour who also helped around at home but was embarrassed to admit publicly came out on the balcony to hang washed clothes, which proves that if you do something good people will emulate it”.

The panel discussion hopped on to the subject of women in sports when Mr. Ganesh Thapa mentioned that ANFA has started treating the women footballers with the same standard as men by providing equal prize money and facilities. If we tally the medals scored by men and women in Nepali sports arena we will find that women have more medals at football, cricket and other individual games added Mr. Yubaraj Lama.

Various non-governmental organisations are working for the issues related to gender based violence whether it is related to trafficking, inequality or injustice against women, but what is the role of the government? Former Chief Secretary Dr. Madhab Prasad Ghimire enunciated that the government has to take the lead; it has to be fully committed, improve laws, change policies and implement the work plan. However Dr. Ghimire stressed that the public should not sit complacent by taking it as the government’s responsibility and reminded that it is the women in our family and society that are being victimised.

Definition of violence has changed with time, technology, development and awareness. Ms. Poornima Shrestha, a reporter of Vibes Magazine, who was in the audience anxiously shared about the violence at work place. She argued that hundreds of women like her either have to go on a date with their bosses or compromise to get a good project at work. 

Violence can be both psychological and physically inflicted directly or indirectly. 16 days of rigorous activism is not enough, we have to be active everyday of the year to make our nation women friendly.