Women challenge sports administrators

By Zim Now Writer

Sports administrators should take deliberate steps to improve the sporting environment to attract women participation in indoor games thereby complimenting their efforts, female darts players have voiced.

Shurugwi-based national darts player Sibonane Mamwiri in an interview told Zimnow that indoor sport games must be played at facilities where women feel safe and free.

She was among the Zimbabwe team that represented the country in Namibia recently where the former won a gold medal.

Zimbabwe were the defending champions and the tournaments consisted of women and men in the battle for top honours.

Mamwiri said that fear of carrying a prostitute label is a difficult issue for women to break through.

“With respect to indoor games, there are few places other than bars where you might find darts or pool and some women do not want to play sport in such environments,” she said.

She added government or any other sporting bodies need to open up community halls or fund existing ones so as to give equal chance of participation to everyone.

She said community halls allow players to invite their families, get support and respect they deserve like any other sporting activities.

Her thoughts echo those of the National Darts Association of Zimbabwe Secretary Stephen Mwarindira who spoke on the state of women participation in indoor games as they lack support.

He said women participation is low due to societal attitude which sometimes call participants all sorts of names like drinkers and prostitutes.

Mwarindira said it is a mixture of both society and other factors such as lack of access to resources, lack of support and exposure to domestic duties.

He however said there is need for support and encouragement from the society.

“There is need for a paradigm shift in our thinking concerning indoor games because societies think that indoor games are reserved for men,” he said.

Mwarindira said the problem can be traced back to history when women were not allowed to take part in men activities and the notion has extended to the now generation which is not good in this age and era where women are now equal to men.

He suggested that sports regulators should conduct education workshops for women in sport so as to encourage others to participate in indoor games.

The Zimbabwe national darts team that represented the country in Namibia recently had eight women and 10 men showing an improvement on women participation in indoor games.

The sporting environment can expose the girl child when dealing with male coaches, who have power in team selections.