GREEN BAY — Fouzia Madhouni couldn’t smile enough as she stood on the Titletown football field, happily, as she should be, throwing soccer balls at children and women in elementary school.
At five feet tall, Madhouni is rarely your typical quarterback, yet there are few things typical of this 27-year-old Moroccan woman. While the NFL diligently strives to bring football to Europe, it must do the same in Africa. The scale and overall goals are different, yet Madhouni is as determined as the NFL, which has lent its support to his efforts.
“I like teamwork and also what football teaches you as a user you don’t know it yourself. I never thought I would be a smart leader because I was that shy user who couldn’t speak in public. Football has taught me that I can be more,” Madhouni said on a recent stop in Green Bay, where she was mentored through the Packers organization.
Judging by his website We Can Morocco, Madhouni has a lot more since he discovered football while attending Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco, where he was reading English. She saw a picture of a classmate in soccer clothes and was intrigued.
“She was dressed in a helmet and was popping up around. I was interested and I called her and told her to put it on. I enjoyed the game,” Madhouni said. I guess they were the first team in Morocco. I was lucky enough to be with them. “
From there, Madhuni’s vision expanded, as did his wisdom of the game. She participates in the Global Sports Mentoring Program, which is supported by the U. S. Department of State. The University of Tennessee Center for Sport, Peace and Society is in the U. S. , the NFL, and Center for Sport, Peace and Society. , and ESPNW. Launched in 2012 through the Department of State, the program is comprised of two initiatives, the Empower Women via Sports program, which focuses on promoting gender equality, and the Sport for Community program, which addresses the rights of other people with disabilities.
Now in its tenth year, the program aims to empower women through play by harnessing the strength of mentoring and cultural exchange. The five-week immersive mentoring experience aims to encourage participants to serve their local communities through expansion to participation in the game.
“I hope to start a program I’m now running called She Has Access,” Madhouni said. More about hygiene, being more informed about French and English classes, leadership systems and, also, most importantly, football. And enjoy it and stay in school. “
Madhouni in Green Bay, far from his home in Salé, just outside the Moroccan capital of Rabat, to watch the New York Jets game, meet Packers staff and attend the Packers Soccer Extension Camp, where Hemlock Creek Elementary School in De Pere is the day’s participant. He will also meet with NFL officials in New York as he develops an action plan to carry out his ideas.
Generating expectations, among women and the community, is one of the demanding situations Madhouni faces. In addition, football is a game of the rich, because of the load of the material.
“There is this discrimination coming from the community, maybe in football and also in outdoor football. I mean, play a game that nobody knows,” he said. Also, the community’s judgment that women should not do this. Girls I have to. Football is super difficult to be a woman, and also to tell other people that I am a woman and that I can do the same as you. “
Madhouni takes faith into account in drawing up his programmes. Moroccan citizens, as in several African countries, are largely Muslim.
“We have to adapt to get him more involved. I’m a Muslim, I can’t just say you have to have some other faith to be a part of this. We have to embrace diversity and also get them more involved, get them to settle. “for the other things,” he says. I’m not going to tell someone ‘don’t wear the hijab’ (head covering that some Muslim women wear) or tell someone ‘wear the hijab’. It’s a difference, but you have to settle for yourself. “
Having that of the Moroccan government is helpful. She sees the maximum of skepticism coming from some other neighborhood.
“We will be judged more through women, because I don’t wear the hijab. I don’t object. It’s just my preference now. I will be judged because I don’t wear it,” she said. “I don’t need the kids to be on this stage right now. That’s why I do everything differently, so even if you use that, we’re all the same. “
Madhouni has his parents’ mostly. They are divorced and their father didn’t have a full understanding of what he was doing at first, and his mother was skeptical in the first place.
“My mom didn’t settle for the concept at first, ‘You’re playing your time,’ and then when I started doing things, I was identified through the government, embassies, the NFL, the Green Bay Packers, my mom supported and it’s still supporting now,” she said.
Perhaps more vital than fatherhood is having the government on your side.
“The program that I direct, I would like to make it bigger to all of Morocco, not only in the rural environment in which I am running, expand it and in five, 10 years we will be everywhere in Africa, the entire African continent. Madhouni said. I would also like to paint about my coaching career. “
He recognizes the magnitude of his ambition, but is discouraged.
“Our calling is Podemos, so we can do anything,” he said. “There is some interest in Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria. They have contacted us to start the same program that we are running in their country, so we are pausing this step for now, until we have a bigger example to come. ” to stick with so we can move on. “
Contact Richard Ryman at rryman@gannett. com. Follow him on Twitter on @RichRymanPG, Instagram on @rrymanPG or Facebook on www. facebook. com/RichardRymanPG/.