Somalia’s first women's football team, the Golden Girls | Al Jazeera World

07/25/21 • 46 min

Courage, corruption, culture and competition – all major factors in the life and times of the first women’s football team in Somalia and its inspirational young coach, Shaima Sellal. The government gave the go-ahead for a women’s team in 1994, but it did not take off because of the continuing civil war. Football can be a casualty of the conflict in a "failed state".

But when an enthusiastic, 19-year-old player-coach arrived from Kenya in 2015, she kick-started the team and adopted the name the "Golden Girls". The team grew, and it applied to FIFA for funding to go to South Africa to play in a tournament in 2018 – but the local authorities siphoned off the cash. When Shaima questioned them, she received threats and had to flee back to Kenya.

Now Shaima arrives back in Somalia, firing on all cylinders. In this film, she and her players tell their personal stories of having to fight the prejudices of a traditional, conservative Muslim culture and for recognition by their families and society as a whole. But when they get the backing of the Somali National Women’s Organisation, they finally take off to compete in a tournament abroad. They might lose the final but they gain a lot of kudos and self-belief.

"We’re back again," says Shaima. "The Golden Girls are back again."

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Israel and Hamas: Anatomy of a Prisoner Exchange | Al Jazeera World

Between 2006 and 2011, a high-stakes negotiated prisoner exchange took place between Israel and Hamas, the group that governs the Gaza Strip. During that time, the two sides did not have any direct contact, so mediators from Egypt, Germany and Ireland were involved. At stake were the terms of exchange between one captured Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, and a large number of Palestinian prisoners.

This film goes behind the scenes of that remarkable five-year operation. Al Jazeera Arabic reporter Tamer Almisshal and his team secured access to those at the centre of the complex negotiations, including a rare interview with senior Hamas leader Marwan Issa as well as former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

It is a story of deadlines, brinksmanship, intelligence and ultimately of deal-making: in exchange for the release of Shalit, Israel released 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. In early 2021, Hamas claimed to hold a further four Israeli prisoners, captured in the 2014 war. While Israel disputed their full claim, it raised the question of whether a new round of prisoner exchange negotiations may be on the cards for these two sworn enemies.

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My Own Private History in Jordan, Egypt and Tunisia | Al Jazeera World

Four stories: a Sinai Bedouin who lived through the 1967 Arab-Israeli War; a retired Jordanian spy who worked undercover in the occupied West Bank; the granddaughter of the leader of a bid for independence in a small town in Egypt in 1919; and one man’s recollection of the protests in Tunisia on January 17, 1961, sparked by the filming of the Hollywood movie, The Thief of Baghdad.

In this film, we present witnesses' accounts of these historical stories - each told through a unique and subjective perspective by those who witnessed the events first-hand, or who have had the narrative handed down to them orally.

Each storyteller recounts key moments in history, as they saw it, upfront and personally.