Sports organisation in Dewsbury carries out the first midnight football session for fasting South Asian women

Picture by Ready Steady Active

Picture by Ready Steady Active

Rashida Salloo, the Founder and Director of Ready Steady Active, a sports organization in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, organized the country’s first midnight football session for South Asian women.

Picture by Ready Steady Active

The women, who are fasting during the holy month of Ramadan, wanted to play the sport without having to limit their physical activity till the period was over. The two-hour-long session saw twenty-two women participate after ending their fast for the day and played from midnight till two in the morning. “More and more women want to remain active; they did a lot of hard work before Ramadan, and they do not want to lose their fitness levels. It is also the social aspect, where a lot of the women came together with friends they would normally only see during the weekend when they have the football session,” Salloo said. She added that the sessions were planned to take place from 12am to 1am, but all the players were very enthusiastic and continued to play the sport for another hour. She did not expect so many women to turn up to the session and expressed that it was her responsibility to make them feel safe and create the “right environment” for them