Once A Raven, Always A Raven

Rama Salem, Bahrain

Rama Salem is a player for Ravens FC, a grassroots women’s football team in Bahrain. Ravens FC plays in the Women's Development League and has become one of the most well-known community teams in the country as the game has grown during the past decade. The team trains in Um Al Hassam and plays in Riffa.

Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your football life? 

My name is Rama Salem, I am 35 years old, and I work as a graphic designer. Football has always been a passion of mine since I was very young. My earliest memory was as a 7-year-old girl playing beach football with my older brother and male cousins on a small strip of sand, using our slippers as goal posts. I also started playing football in the street, car parks, or any patch of grass we could find with makeshift goals. 

I was always the only girl who used to play with the boys, and some of them would get annoyed at that. Back then, besides the occasional school game, there were no football academies that offered football programs for girls or any tournaments or leagues. It was very difficult as a female to find a playing field solely dedicated to girls. During my time at school, the only other female teams we knew or heard of were the other school teams we played against.

Nowadays there are endless mixed football games and girls are encouraged to participate in a team from a young age at school. We have a football league and many annual tournaments. It makes me sad that I did not have that opportunity at a younger age and so I have always made it my personal mission to do my part for the future of female football in Bahrain, giving the girls a chance to play a sport that they were told they could not play before. It warms my heart that our team Ravens FC played a role in paving the way.

How did Ravens FC begin?

After returning from university in 2009, I stumbled upon a brand-new football academy (Arsenal Soccer School Bahrain) that was trying to promote a girls program led by a female coach. Very excited by this news, I decided to sign up and play. I showed up to the pitch and there were only five girls including myself. The coach, who moved to Bahrain from the UK to set up the academy, was struggling to understand why there was such a lack of interest from girls to play football. I explained to her that it was not about disinterest, it was about lack of awareness. Females in Bahrain never had a space to play and take part in the sport. 

I told her I would get in touch with a couple of the girls that I used to play with in school and bring them along to train. The following week the group multiplied in numbers and grew as each week went on. Their friends told their friends and next thing you know we had a group of 20 girls. It was the start of something really special and not long after that the first female football league in Bahrain was set up. 

The interest grew from all corners in Bahrain, it was overwhelming to see how many girls and women wanted to play football and small social groups were forming their own teams. Ravens FC was a product of this movement. We started from nothing and now a couple of years later we are one of the most well-known teams in the country. It is so amazing to see how far it has come from initially only being a handful of girls who played. 

What did you try to show with the photos? Was there any wider meaning with the photos?

We are Ravens FC! A homegrown, non-profit women’s football club based in Bahrain that has been running for nearly nine years. In that time, we have had many young girls and ladies from all walks of life join the team. As a squad, we try to promote living a healthy and active lifestyle, being responsible members of the community, and role models for the empowerment of other young females through football. But most importantly, we get together every week, strap on our boots and just have fun, because that is what it is all about - sharing one common goal, the love for football. 

We currently have 22 players. We are trained at Um Al Hassam by the Juventus Academy Bahrain coaches. We are currently in the Women's Development League and just won the league!

Most of the photos were taken at our training grounds and various pitches around Bahrain with members from the squad. I wanted to show that grassroots football is an integral part of our community. Not everyone who plays will become professional or go on to have a career within the game. However, the social skills, the family feeling, and having a release from day-to-day life through football is so important for the development of all of us as citizens of the world. I wanted to show the solidarity and friendships between teammates. We always sit in a circle after every training session or match, bonding over the game and having a laugh. 

Every time I step onto the pitch with my team is a proud moment. We have opened doors for many young girls to make themselves proud on a pitch. Ravens FC is a family that can never be replaced. It gives me so much joy knowing that we make friends for life with all the players who have come and gone. Once a Raven, always a Raven. 

How did it feel to win the league?

The 2021/22 season has been a special year for Ravens FC. After a 2-year Covid-induced absence from competitive football, we had to rebuild the squad. 22 players later, a quality blend of founding members plus some excellent new additions meant we ended up with arguably the strongest squad we have ever had. 

An incredible league campaign ensued, we won every game before the Christmas break, and were crowned champions in the penultimate game of the season (for the first time!)

I am so proud of all the hard work and effort the girls put into creating a winning mentality and culture. The process has been a few years in the making. We have made great strides both individually and collectively and that patience has made the successes even sweeter. Our strengths here at Ravens are that we play for each other first and foremost and we believe there is always more to achieve. We understand it is our responsibility to continue that hard work. We started down this path and after what we have achieved this year, I am really excited to see where we can go from here.

Are there any good stories connected with the people you photographed?

Every one of the girls has a story and journey that led them to football and eventually joining the Ravens. No matter what, football always connects us and brings us together. 

One of our players, Janet Kellagher, is from Edinburgh in Scotland and has been playing football since she was old enough to walk. Growing up there were no teams for girls at school, and all the local clubs only had teams for boys. She joined a boys’ team and was the only girl playing with them. Other teams she was playing against gave her weird looks and said things like “Oh look, there is a girl on that team.” But when she was around 12, girls’ football was becoming more and more popular. She ended up playing for the Scotland under 18s women’s national team and for Hearts. After losing touch with the sport and moving to Bahrain, she joined Ravens FC and has been playing for the past 10 years.

What are the opportunities for female footballers in Bahrain?

Football has become a lot more accessible for girls and women over the past decade. Although professional opportunities in this space remain limited, we are seeing more female participation in football at amateur and social levels. Growing up, girls did not have any football academies or social groups that they could join to play on a regular basis. Our opportunities to play were restricted to the school playground, or if we had male siblings, we might be able to join a game or two in our backyards or in our neighbourhoods. 

Now it is very common to see little girls playing with little boys in football academies. It is even more common to see young adults playing socially on a weekly basis. Although we are lagging behind, we are already seeing so much progress as there are more women and girls who are forming and participating in amateur football teams. The future for women’s football in Bahrain can only get brighter.

What does football mean to you? 

It is an unexplainable feeling. Football has taken us through every emotional ride possible - happiness, sadness, frustration, joy, fear, excitement, pain, euphoria... you name it! That is the beauty of playing the game. It is a life lesson that teaches you so much in a matter of minutes. What we love most about playing is the opportunity to allow ourselves to let go and overcome anything. It is the definition of never giving up! Always getting back up on your feet no matter how hard it gets and knowing that you will always have your teammates there to support you. It is more than a game; it is a place to grow and learn.

There is an incredible sense of family being part of this team. We mostly feel pride when playing with the Ravens. As a squad we try to represent the better side of football; inclusiveness, fair play, tolerance, fun. It is more than just about winning, it is about playing the best we can, improving ourselves and team spirit. As with any sport, sometimes you can give everything you can, but the other team is better, or things do not fall your way. It is the nature of the game; we try to make sure that effort and team cohesion are valued higher than goals scored and games won.

Why is football so important for Bahrain and its people?

Football has been played here for as long as we can remember. It is a generational sport, our fathers played and so did their fathers. Communities grew closer because we would meet on the streets and kick the ball down narrow alleys and on empty plots of land. It was more than a sport but a moment to bond and build relationships with your neighbours. 

Today, football has become a national sport and a source of pride. We may not be highly ranked but when Bahrain plays a game, we all show up. Stadiums fill up and cars covered in flags and spray paint honk up and down the streets, and everyone joins in. This is why football is at the core of who we are. It brought us together when we had nothing and continues to bind us as a nation today.

What is the future for women's football in Bahrain?

The importance of sports and physical activity in a young girl’s life must be appreciated and prioritised. For the most part, women's football in Bahrain has been overshadowed and overlooked. The development of women's football in this region has not received much support and this is something we hope to see improve in the near future by playing our part and being heard! Having said that, in more recent years we are seeing a massive change and shift in female participation, but we hope to see more platforms for Arab female athletes to perform on. 

Outside of the benefits of football, we would love for more Bahraini women to take up the sport to help break down stereotypes and barriers that still exist in a huge number of places. Football is a universal language shared by hundreds of millions of people across the globe and we hope one day a little Bahraini girl out there who sees an Arab woman playing on a bigger stage thinks, "if she can do it, so can I"! The talent pool is immense and hopefully we will see in the future more investment in women’s football to improve the conditions and the opportunities that we as women in sports aspire to have. 

We would love to see growth in participation, but we also want to inspire people to support their local women’s teams and volunteer at their local women’s clubs. 

Do you have a message for the next generation of girls who want to play football?

You are capable of anything. Do more of the things that empower you and others. Keep pushing, work hard and show up. Living your dream will encourage a future generation of young women to pursue sports and their dreams. 

If they can see women perform on the elite stage doing something they love, who is to say that this cannot be them if they put in the work and dedication?