When we think of baseball, we think of big hunky men running around a field doing God knows what. Palestinian women, however, decided to shatter everything you believe about that sport.
Coach Mahmoud Tafesh — former soccer player who played for the Palestinian national team for 16 years — introduced the sport to the Palestinian girls after training in Egypt. He rented facilities for the players he recruited — 40 women and 20 men — to practice in with his own expenses and hasn’t received any financial aid. “We have received no financial support from anyone. I buy the balls and I make the bats,” Tafesh told Reuters.
Tafesh did, however, receive approval from Gaza’s Ministry of Youth and Sport to establish the first Palestinian Federation for Baseball and Softball. According to Tafesh in his interview with Reuters, the recruiting took place at the only sports education college in Gaza, and he, surprisingly, found more girls interested in the sport than boys.
“We targeted this group because they had permission from their families to do sport as sports students. Through them, we started to spread, attracting girls from other fields such as journalism and accountants.”
WE SAID THIS: We couldn’t be more proud of our Palestinian girls!