The Sudanese Women’s Football Team Defying War and Exile

Tucked between busy city streets and the slow-moving waters of the Nile river, a football field offers peace and relief to thirty Sudanese women athletes in the heart of Cairo, playing under the name ‘Samidat’. 

“I used to live three minutes away from [this same] river, in Khartoum,” said Aisha, a Sudanese refugee and football player . “There, the Nile is wider, and its water is so clean you can drink from it as you walk by.”

When civil war broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its allies in April 2023, Aisha thought she would never be able to play football again. Just a few years earlier, Sudan’s 2019 revolution sparked dreams of political freedom and progress in gender equality, including hopes for women to compete professionally in football. Those aspirations, once so vivid in the wake of Omar al-Bashir’s ousting, were quickly extinguished as the country slid back into violence and instability.

Now, as Aisha readyed herself to enter the pitch, she regarded the bittersweetness of returning to the game in Egypt instead of her home country.

“I cannot believe we have been able to gather all girls together to continue what we started in Sudan,” she told More to Her Story, holding back tears.

Samidat’s goalkeeper defends the net during the last minutes of their training. Thursday, April 17, 2025, in Cairo, Egypt. Bianca Carrera for More to Her Story

Many of the women on team Samidat — meaning “resilient women” in Arabic — were professional football players in Sudan and competed in the country's national women’s teams, like Al-Tahadi, where Aisha played for three years before the war, and Al-Difaa.

Fikra, an independent Sudanese research center, along with the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa “SIHA” network, established Samidat in Cairo in January with the goal of reconstructing Sudan’s national women’s team. They also tapped Salma al-Majidi, the world’s first Arab woman to coach men’s football in Sudan, to coach the new team. She too had to flee the country when the war began, and leave behind her coaching passion.

“We are trying to preserve all those activities that we lost because of the war,” said Mohamed Obaid, a Program Officer at Fikra who fled Sudan for Egypt. “And this project is aligned with our goal of seeking for a better life for Sudanese refugees, and of showing that we can, despite the current conditions, continue practicing our activities and building a brighter future.”

“Most of the girls faced awful situations and were witness to appalling disasters during the war, besides having had it very difficult to reach Egypt,” said al-Majidi, sighing. “So when we told them that we were going back to do what we love, in a safe environment… they felt over the moon, and I did too.”

Samidat’s members hold each other while showing the team’s name in Arabic –meaning ‘resilient women’. Thursday, April 17, 2025, in Cairo, Egypt. Bianca Carrera for More to Her Story.

Sudan boasts a rich football heritage as one of the four founding members of the Confederation of African Football, the first host of the African Cup of Nations, and home to one of Africa's earliest women's national teams in 1954. However, the journey to establish women's participation in the national football league has faced significant resistance.

“I once stopped a driver to take me to the football field from my home, and he asked me why I was going there,” recounted al-Majidi. “When I told him that I was the coach of the team, he said he would not drive me, and [asked] whether I have a father, brother, or uncle that forbidding me going. The driver then turned off the car’s engine and said he would not take me anywhere. I was about to pay him for at least the short ride, but he refused to take money from me because he did not see me as human.”

Samidat’s coach, Salma al-Majidi, walks through the field as she organizes the training session. Thursday, April 17 2025, in Cairo, Egypt. Bianca Carrera for More to Her Story.

By 1983, a conservative Islamist movement dramatically curtailed women's freedoms. Under the guise of religious justification, local authorities issued several "fatwas" (formal rulings on Islamic law) declaring women's football immoral and banned official female teams. Despite these restrictions, Salma and other determined young women continued playing.

“It wasn't completely forbidden," explained Samia, who played for Sudan's Al-Tahadi team under al-Majidi's coaching in 2020 and now plays for Samidat. "However, it was disliked.” 

Samia explained how her team once traveled out of town to play, but once they arrived, the local imam devoted his sermon to criticizing the women, questioning how a group of girls could be playing football there.

The veiled 28-year-old hesitated when discussing religious authorities' disapproval. 

“Their reluctance has nothing to do with religion, but rather with their own old customs and traditions,” Samia said, adding that she was always supported by her family to pursue an athletic career. “When someone comes and defies those customs, societal norms start to change.”

Samia, the young girl second starting from the left wearing a blue scarf, and her teammates, while they listen to the coach during the training. Thursday, April 17 2025, in Cairo, Egypt. Bianca Carrera for More to Her Story.

During breaks at work, Samia looked back at photos from the days she competed in Sudan’s national league. Now in Egypt, she and her sister earn about 100 Egyptian pounds a day — roughly two U.S. dollars — running a small corner shop from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

“The journey took six days,” recalled Samia, “we had to sleep on the floor, and my step-sister could not stop crying.” Samia tried staying in her home in Khartoum for as long as possible, but by October 2023, she realized that leaving was the only way to stay safe.

“Only my step-sister and I made the journey, completely alone,” Samia recounted. “Some months later, we could bring my step-mother and one of our brothers, but my mum and the rest of the family are still there.” As she works daily to sustain her family and bring more members to Egypt, she has been forced to put aside her other aspirations. 

A small girl, the small sister of one of the players of Samidat, is taught the basics of football while the team trains. Thursday, April 17 2025, in Cairo, Egypt. Bianca Carrera for More to Her Story.

Since the start of the war, Egypt has emerged as the largest host country for Sudanese refugees. According to the Egyptian government, over 1.2 million Sudanese have sought refuge in Egypt, a figure that underscores the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis. Many refugees remain unregistered, suggesting that the actual number of Sudanese refugees in Egypt is likely higher. 

According to Fika, only men’s football leagues have continued to run, with attempts to organize matches in Sudan’s safe areas and the transfer of Sudan’s national team to continue training and competing from Mauritania. The newly formed professional women’s teams, however, remains completely halted, with Samidat reportedly the only all-women’s Sudanese football team in operation.

“When we started our training and posted it in social media, we received dozens of comments from Sudanese women refugees outside of Cairo and Egypt. They wished they were here to join Samidat,” al-Majidi added.

Aisha, in the middle wearing a black scarf, and her friends sit and share their aspirations after they finish training. Thursday, April 17 2025, in Cairo, Egypt. Bianca Carrera for More to Her Story.

Although the team is not yet registered in the Egyptian national league and cannot compete in official tournaments, their current goal is to play friendly matches with other Egyptian women’s teams, ultimately aiming to face Al-Ahly, the all-female squad of one of Egypt’s most renowned football clubs. 

As the sun starts to dip below the horizon, Samia and Aicha finish training and sit next to the goal net. A few other teammates join, and start sharing their aspirations; something that seems difficult to have under the current circumstances, but something Samia refuses to give up.

“I wish I can be a coach like Salma, internationally but especially in Sudan, where they need us,” Samia said. “Personally,” Aisha added, “I wish we can establish many more teams for the new generations, so that they do not have the challenges we find ourselves in now.” Words of optimism and steadfastness that capture the meaning of this team of young Sudanese women by the name “Samida”: resilient.