Manama: Bahrain’s men’s basketball team has a female coach for the first time in its history. Thirty-three-year-old Fatima Riyad wore the training shirt of the men’s basketball team in the midst of many challenges for women to enter sports.
Fatimah said that many people doubted her ability when she took over as the assistant coach of the Al Najma Basketball Club, a men’s basketball team in Manama, Bahrain’s capital city, as she prepared to enter the male-dominated field of training. When women entered sports, they did not get proper recognition. Especially in basketball, which used to be reserved for men. But now people’s mindset has started to change, she said.
Apart from basketball, Fatima is proficient in cycling and tennis and earlier coached boys and girls in basketball. Fatima Riyad, a black belt in Taekwondo martial arts, is leading her sports career with the dream of becoming the head coach of the national basketball team and winning championships.