Rima El Abadi calls for women participation in sports media

Sports media presenter, Rima El Abadi said that sports event is not just a result, it is audience, players and coaches, adding that she enjoys covering sports events, especially after the spread of technology devices.

She chose this field due to the small number of women journalists covering sports events in Jordan. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of two sessions in the Sports Media Association, founder of “Future” club, former Secretary of the Women's Committee of the Olympic Committee and worked for several local daily and weekly Jordanian newspapers. She now works as deputy director of the sports department in “Constitution” Jordanian newspaper, and editor-in-chief of “Al-Husam” news website.

She said during an interview with “Arab Today” that she worked in different sections like, entertainment, community, youth and women, and these sections didn’t suffer any staff shortage, but the sports section doesn’t appeal to everyone especially women journalists, so she decides to cover sports events, adding that finding a space in newspapers and websites for sportive woman is on the top of difficulties she faces. She added that the sources available to sportive women are few, so she also made sure to meet their parents in different events to highlight their role in supporting their daughters.

She said that women participation in sports media is low, and perhaps that is because of the low salary compared to men, adding that she was nominated by Media Sports Association and “Constitution” newspaper to be the first woman to cover the 17th Asian Games "Incheon 2014” in Incheon, in South Korea, but the Olympic committee refused her participation, because all the media delegation were men, and they didn’t have any room for a woman.

El Abadi thinks high of the Arab sports media, referring to some excellent media women presenters in this field, and there is great investment in sports media in the Arab Gulf like “Noun sport” magazine and website, but in Jordan the number of women in this field is small.
 
She said that she likes to cover horse riding events, because it is a beautiful and calming sport, adding that watching and practicing such sport is a treatment to many diseases, as a doctor specialized in horses told her. She added that she doesn’t mind if her daughter entered the sports media field, and women should support each other. She also believes that there aren’t many sports in Jordan, and the law of unions is inflexible, adding that women sports teams are weak, and that their activity should be well studied and has a specific system.