Abiha Haider is a young Pakistani currently serving as a member of women’s national football team in Pakistan. In one of her recent Facebook posts, she has opened up about the lack of representation for players like herself in the media and about celebrities appropriating their positions in the name of publicity.
The sector of sports in Pakistan is still in its developing stages and international-level athletes must struggle at every stage to be able to represent their country, more so if they are women as there are even fewer facilities available for the female sports sector. Players constantly face a lack of facilities and a lack of funds and training, only to be greeted with a lack of representation in the media after having to work to the end of their limits.
The young Haider has taken to social media to discuss the issue: “We always discuss the status of football in Pakistan but do we discuss how our national team players are treated in their own country and how, in every event, these celebrities who are irrelevant to the event take the show away? What better was that to football? I don’t usually come public with these things but after having deep discussions and seeing the spirit of my fellow colleagues shaking, [I say] enough is enough.”
She also complained about the treatment they received in the July 2017 international football event happening in Pakistan. Haider accused those in charge of “giving VIP access to the celebrities and making them the limelight while not even calling/recognizing/giving respect to your national team players. Singers were made ambassadors and our boys were called just to act, making national men/women team captains for the sake of it but football is not an individual sport. Where were the other women’s team members?” She also said that she had to get to the event hotel on herself and get herself pushed around and being around organizers who didn’t even know she had been playing in the national team for the past nine years.
After discussing the events of 2017 she moved on to talking about the World Cup Trophy coming to Pakistan a few days ago. She complained that a big trophy like that was coming home, and all who went to bring it home was a cricketer, an actress, a singer, and journalists with the Pakistan team captain, whereas other male and female members of the teams weren’t present. “The fun part was in one of the interviews regarding the trophy journey when the actress had no idea about football.” She further added that if footballers weren’t to be taken in cricket events, weren’t cast in TV serials and weren’t featured in music albums, then “why all these people were taken in the event where we footballers deserved to be?”
This was not the first time a Pakistani player had talked about a lack of representation and singers taking up the positions that they did not deserve. Some time ago, a Pakistani Squash player Noorena Shams had also spoken up on her social media about a TV commercial that featured a singer, Momina Mustehsan as an athlete. Shams had said that the real athletes are still waiting for these ad makers to know them and give them recognition. “I am sorry but as an athlete, I feel miserable at times when we are not given priority,” she complained. She also said that the money spent on the advertisement was able to change the life of a real athlete in Pakistan since they cannot even afford shoes or rackets. “They do not need your money but at least they need to be supported when it comes to the representation of our country.”
