Fall 2007
An announcer's voice booms in the language of Ethiopia as men spread across the soccer field wearing green, yellow and red uniforms. The colors of the Ethiopian flag also splash across the headscarf of 43-year-old Anisa Adem, who watches from the stands with muted enthusiasm.
Anisa Adem of Plano experienced the male-dominated culture of Ethiopia as a girl living in the African country. Mrs. Adem, who lives in Plano, has spent years trying to enable girls to play at this annual event and share the spotlight with men, who still dominate the social, political and sports scenes in Ethiopia. Each year in early July, Ethiopian-Americans from around the U.S. gather to celebrate their heritage, catch up with friends and witness the main event – a weeklong soccer tournament. As in their country of origin, the men play; the women sit and watch.
This week's tournament at Homer B. Johnson Stadium in Garland is no different, even as organizers say they support Mrs. Adem's goal of encouraging girls to participate. "I really, really appreciate her energy," said Dawit Agonafer, president of the Ethiopian Sports Federation in North America. "I really wish there was a girls team." Mrs. Adem's energy has included a lawsuit against his organization and a recent documentary-style video criticizing it.
Mrs. Adem, who often smiles from under a forehead wrinkled with intensity, may be accused of some things by her detractors – a go-it-alone attitude maybe, or a tendency to push and pull when people might like her to just go along. But they don't accuse her of lacking energy.
The struggle
Her struggle began at 2002's tournament in Maryland, when one of her two daughters – the girl was 7 then – asked why only boys and men ever went on the field.
Mrs. Adem says the question shocked her. She had never noticed, never thought about it. She tried to come up with an explanation, but she knew: "Kids see your actions, not your words." ?
Mrs. Adem had felt her own frustrations as a girl growing up in Ethiopia.
Her father, a devout Muslim who ran a lucrative coffee business, ensured his eight daughters had good educations but did not let them go swimming or bicycling, or to the movies. She blames the prohibitions not on her father's religious beliefs – Ethiopia is a mix of Christians and Muslims – but on the country's culture. What would the neighbors think?
Mrs. Adem, who came to the U.S. for college and, along with most of her brothers and sisters, never left, was determined that her own U.S.-born daughters would not feel the sting of sexism. She went to work organizing a Dallas girls team for the 2003 tournament in Houston. That effort ended in disappointment: a game against a boys team rather than other girls. Next year, Mrs. Adem thought. She set about trying to make the team more official. Within a few months, she had incorporated the Roba Ethiopian-American Girls Association, a nonprofit group encouraging Ethiopian-American girls to participate in sports, science and leadership activities.
Mrs. Adem wrote the tournament organizers to secure a spot for the team, and they responded enthusiastically. And after efforts to raise more than $20,000 – and thousands in credit card debt – a group of more than 20 girls and their parents made the trip to Seattle only to find that, again, no girls team had been organized for them to play. Mr. Agonafer says it's true his organization could not come up with an opposing girls team. "It was really out of our control," he said, adding, "We went above and beyond to accommodate her. We bent over backwards."
The results
After the team got home, Mrs. Adem stewed over what she felt was the disrespect the team had been shown and over all the money spent. She sued the tournament organizers for breach of contract. Over the next couple of years, she ran up thousands in legal bills trying to get the suit off the ground. The tournament organizers spent thousands in their defense. The suit was dismissed last year on procedural grounds. Mrs. Adem says she could refile it, but she doesn't know if she will. Many of her friends and family, including her husband, have criticized the lawsuit, she says.
After the lawsuit's failure, she set about putting together a documentary-style video about the situation. The 25-minute DVD was completed last month, and she says she hopes it will encourage girls to pursue the same opportunities as boys.
She also hopes that the donations people give her for it she is asking $20 each – will help get her organization back into the black. After legal fees, thousands of dollars spent making the video and leftover expenses from the trip to Seattle, she says, her association is about $14,000 in debt.
Mrs. Adem, who with her husband declared bankruptcy in 2001, says she is working a part-time job at J.C. Penney to help pay some of the expenses. One of the parents whose 11-year-old daughter went to Seattle says he is a friend of Mrs. Adem and of the tournament organizers. He sympathizes with both. The organizers face a tough job bringing together thousands of Ethiopian-Americans each year for the event, says Mohammed Adem, who is not related to Mrs. Adem. He doesn't approve of the lawsuit.
"Why don't we sit down and try to come up with some kind of compromise?" he said. "That's what will put this thing forward."
But Mr. Adem says he believes the tournament organizers should put more effort into making sure girls are included.
"I would say the organization should spend money and time to organize little girls into teams and just do the job," he said. "It's not some lack of girls; the girls are there. They just need somebody to organize them." Efforts to get girls team in all-male tournament so far unsuccessful.
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