First-ever women soccer match held in Islamabad

Pakistan Saturday staged its first ever women’s soccer match to mark the FIFA (International Football Federation) Fair Play Day which officials said would help boost women’s sports in this Muslim country.

The Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) organised the match and coach Tariq Lutfi told AFP it would go a long way in promoting women’s sports in the country. Pakistan’s conservative society does not encourage women to feature in field sports, strictly forbidding them to wear shorts and t-shirts, and the Islamists government in North West Frontier Province last year banned male coaches from training females. But the Islamic republic of nearly 150 million people has women’s cricket and hockey teams, and Pakistan sent one female athlete to each of the last three Olympic Games…