Spotlight on: Iqra Ismail
We had the pleasure to sit down with GSL committer member Iqra and get to know the humble trailblazer and her inspiring story, after she had just been featured in the British Vogue.
Iqra is the current director of women's football at Hilltop Women's Football Club, and the current and first ever captain of the Somali Women's National Team. Hilltop WFC is aimed to engage BAME women and girls in football and giving them the opportunity to play football in a safe, comfortable environment. You wouldn’t think it, but on top of that, she is also a third year university student studying sociology and psychology.
Iqra Ismail on joining the GSL as a committee member.
What inspired you to set up Hilltop WFC?
I believe my resilience or hard headedness is the only reason I even continued playing past the age of 16, which is when if you're not going to be famous, women and girls do drop out of sport. I wasn't really phased by the lack of people that look like me around me, it wasn't something that I felt should stop me. But it's something that I was conscious of, just not being surrounded by anyone that looked like myself and always having to carry my entire community on my back with whatever I do.
February 2019
I ran a charity football tournament to raise some money for a good cause. And I remember a lot of young girls from my community turning up and it was just like I didn't even know there was this much interest essentially at the time. And then, it just got me thinking there's this many girls that want to engage in football. Why not give them a chance to attend? Why not give them a space where they feel like they can consistently come and play football, essentially?
April 2019
Early April 2019, I flew out to Mykonos in Greece and I've meant to be enjoying my birthday, but I'm in the hotel with lovely sandy beaches and beautiful weather and all types of amazing things I could be enjoying. And all I'm doing is sitting there thinking, OK, so where are we going to run the sessions? OK, women going to get the equipment from OK, how the logistics go to work, what age group are we going to start with, that kind of stuff. So for me it was something I couldn't stop thinking about as soon as it kind of came into my head. And then I'm a very sort of hard hearted person. If I get something stuck in my head, I just got to go and do it.
June 21st
First footballing session with NUR (Never Underestimate Resilience), which later became HilltopWFC.
The Somalia national team captain explained why she couldn’t accept a scholarship offer from D1 soccer college Florida State University:
I believe it might be a blessing in disguise type of one or just something doesn't go your way in one sense and maybe you sort of meant to be the person to change things for others.
What were your personal challenges as a footballer?
It was emotional fatigue, if that makes sense. Looking back now, I felt like I was always representing the black community, always representing the Muslim community. I felt like at all times a day I had to be this beacon of hope. I had to be this person that represents my community, bu realistically, I just wanted to be another one of the players. I just wanted to be part of the team.
There was always this tiptoeing around who I was within the club, but I never really felt 100 percent accepted within the team. I just saw it as unique to myself, unique to my own experience. But having conversations with a lot of my players and a lot of young girls that have played in some of the clubs, they've said some of the same things. And I feel that as a culture that really needs to be eradicated within within the women's game.
Challenges within football
Definitely the lack of women and girls in football, the lack of Muslim women and girls in football, both of the two massive parts of my identity.
Lack of diversity
If you look at England’s national teams and compare men's national team with he women's national team, they look completely different and that is not an accurate representation of football. There's a lot of grassroots football clubs that I've seen, especially of late, that have many very, very talented players. So, what is what is the issue? Why are these players dropping out at such a young age or why they're not continuing ? And I think a lot it does come down to the fact that they feel like they're not comfortable in their environment at the end and they don't see anyone that looks like them. So we need to give them a safe, comfortable environment and we need to give them the opportunity and the ladder to step one to move up within football.
Do you think there is progress?
I would say there is there is a bit of a difference because of leagues like the Girls Super League LDN, there's definitely steps being taken in the right direction. But I think only time will tell in the next couple of years of whether these steps are be enough and whether it's going to translate into the game.
Why did you decide to support the GSL?
The Girls Super League London is is everything that I myself and a lot of people and young girls my age needed, you know, a couple of years ago we needed something to keep us engaged. We needed consistent football, and we needed to feel like we had a place to play. And this is very important to install that mindset into young girls, that they are welcome, that the game is also for them. And that is what the GSL is here for.
