REFİF İSLİM

Gaza –Nili al-Misri was born into a sports family. Her father Ismail al-Misri was a Palestinian national team player. She has a family-loving sport. Nili surely chose a profession about sports. She began her career as a sports journalist and then shot a documentary film. 38-year-old Nili al-Misri began her career in sports after graduating from Al-Azhar University. She is now a member of the Palestine Sports Journalists Association.

She decided to be a sports journalist when she realized that all sports journalists were men

Nili al-Misri always followed the news about her father. One day, she tried to find news about her father in three separate newspapers and realized that all sports journalists were men. Then, she decided to be the first female sports journalist in the country.

“I had no difficulties because I had gone to many football matches”

She has gone to many football matches in her life and had no difficulties working as a sports journalist. She first worked for a radio station in Palestine and learned how to be a good sports journalist very fast. “I had no difficulties because I had gone to many football matches but people look at you differently because you are a woman holding a camera.”

Her career makes women feel more comfortable in sports

She first went to a football pitch as a sports journalist not as a little girl watching her father’s matches. After working as a sports journalist, she realized that she managed to change the perception of many football spectators.

“My first step was a very hard step. It encourages many women to work more comfortably in sports and to be accepted more easily by society.”

She aims to document women's sports history in Palestine

“Palestine was occupied from 1948 to 1967. The control, occupation and massacres of Israel have been documented until now but the achievements of women who participated in many international tournaments representing Palestinians have been ignored. For this reason, I decided to document women's sports history in Palestine.”