A Night of Jordanian Football

                I’ve never really been a huge soccer fan, or any sports type of fan for that matter, I always felt that professional sport games got in the way of practicing music or other means that were of more importance. In the recent years I have tried to be more balanced, do things I haven’t really done before that most people do, so when the opportunity came to go to a professional soccer game (or football called here in Jordan) I figured I should take the opportunity and go.

                There was word being spread about a football game, a competition for Jordan’s acceptance into the world cup. If they lost, they would be eliminated and the other team would move on, this team was Australia. My friend Keith and I gave some money to another BYU to buy our tickets in advance. When it got closer to the game, Keith and I decided to stay in our apartment to rest, do homework, and not deal with the hassle of a crazy international football game. Apparently there were roughly nine girls and four guys going which they were advised to have a 2:1 ration of guys to girls by their female Arabic teacher. We later received a phone call asking for Keith and I to come so there will be more guys, which we agreed. We took our own taxi to the stadium since the main group had already left.

           In our taxi we got stuck in traffic many times. When we got stuck in traffic along the street of the main gate, we had many Jordanian young men walking along side of the cars asking us, “Inta Australee? Inti maa Australia? Are you Australian? Are you with Australia?” Keith and I would respond with, “la, ihna maa Ilurdan. No, we are with Jordan.” The first two young men that asked us were so excited that we were with Jordan instead of Australia and called us their brothers. The rest of the young men didn’t believe us and continued their shouts for Jordan. Our taxi driver let us know that everyone will think we are Australian and that we should make sure we go to the Jordan gates into the stadium so we don’t get verbally abused or even physically abused. After many other young men coming to our taxi windows we were still stuck in traffic. A few times we would see groups of young men all of a sudden running fast towards us and away from the stadium. I later learned that that was because they were being chased off by Jordanian police with gas. Keith and I wanted to get out so we didn’t have to pay the taxi driver for his time. He told us not to get out until we got closer to the main gate. I thought it was for the fact of him getting more money for his time but I later learned it was really for our safety.

                We finally got close to the gate. Our taxi driver reminded us again to just go straight to the Jordan gates (versus the gate the Australian portion of the stands). We get out and quickly found ourselves in the middle of a chaotic situation with the crowds and police. These police stood in a line telling the young men to go away, I imagine threatening them with further gas, but I didn’t pay too much attention to what they were saying to them; I was focused on how to get inside the stadium and to find our group of BYU students. I walked through a hole in the line of police. One grabs me by the arm and begins to walk me towards the stadium with a gun in his other arm. I tell him that we have friends inside the stadium and need to get our tickets. He said we should go to the Australian side even though I confirmed to him we were with Jordan. We were escorted twice by the police to the Australian gate because this apparently was the best place for us to be. Our fellow BYU students were already stuck inside the stadium and were not able to give us our tickets. So Keith and I decide that we should just go home and miss the game because it was going to start fairly soon and certainly didn’t have any tickets to get in what already seemed to be an already sold out game. There were crowds at each Jordanian gate of young men, pushing and shoving to squeeze through the police at the opening gate but the police were doing the same back. Surely, we couldn’t get in that way and sit with our friends.

                Keith and I, with another last minute decision, decided to go back to the Australian gate and try our luck there. We were already there at the stadium; we might as well try to get in. It was very interesting because many Jordanian youth tried to get in on the Australian side, carrying Australian flags trying to convince the authorities there were with Australia. Keith and I told them our story of how we had tickets but couldn’t get them on the Jordanian side, the police told us they couldn’t help us but we waited to see what would happen. Later, a Jordanian woman (probably the only one I saw at the whole stadium) was in charge of helping the Australian tourists to get in. After hearing our story decided to let us into the stadium and to go quickly before others see that we got in without tickets.

Keith and I on the Australian side of the stadium.

                Inside the Australian side, we saw that our small portion of the stadium which was fenced off was not full at all. We saw proud shirtless Aussies doing cheers while the crowded Jordanian crowd rambled several Arabic cheers. We met a few friends on the inside; most of them were fellow Americans that are here studying Arabic that also got let in for free. Obviously the polices knew that this side of the stadium would be much safer. I began to worry a lot about our group that was stuck in the middle of the stands with Jordanians. We tried to call and text but most of the time, our phones didn’t work and if they did, we couldn’t hear each other because of the loud volume.

                I’ve never been to a professional soccer game, never been a fan, but I sure do recall of hearing crazy riots and attacks at soccer games, as well as that Arab young men can be notorious for sexually assaulting foreign women at these events. Jordan is winning with 2 points and Australia 0 points with only a quarter of the game left. I wanted to leave to avoid the riots and the attempted verbal or even physical attacks on us as being foreigners and on the opposing team. We tried to encourage the other BYU students to the same, but of course it was too loud for them to hear us and texting didn’t work. So we left, got a taxi fairly easy and then arrived home grateful to have avoided the later chaos.

Our view point from the fenced off area.
Straight ahead was where our other BYU group was located.

                Shortly after arriving home, I got a call from one of the girls from the main BYU group. I could hear loud sirens and “whooping” sounds from what sounded like an ambulance or police car. This girl called to see if we were still at the stadium at which I replied. I asked them if they were on their way home and she said they were in a police ambulance type of car. She said that the crowd got so crazy that they were bombarded by many of the young men that they sexually assaulted the girls as they tried to get out of the crowds. I later learned that one of the nine girls in the group strongly wanted to leave early like Keith and I did but the rest of the group wanted to stay to the end. Sadly, she was right to have wanted to leave. I continued to learn the greater details of what had happened and how some of the Jordanian young men created a line around the BYU girls so that others wouldn’t get to them, calling it “haram” or forbidden of what the other young men were doing. A few of the girls were devastated with what had happened while other girls just took it as part of the culture and were just fine with their sexual assaults.

                My heart goes out to those that were hurt physically and emotionally. I wish Keith and I could have been with them to help , I wish that the group was smarter in their actions. I wish that they had left early like Keith and I did but most of all I wish the girls that took the event light heartedly would be more sensitive to the girls that were highly disturbed by the night. Nothing ever gives men the right to sexually assault women, especially not a “culture.” They shouldn’t have gone even with the numbers of guys to girls that they had. They had to have known how crazy the crowds would be.  They surely were warned not only the day of the game that this would happen but also before they ever came to Jordan. Of course, being with BYU, we instated new rules regarding public events that there is 2:1 ratio of guys to girls.

                I think I am more concerned about all of this because I have personally tried my best to be with the girls from our program even if it is out of my way to make sure they aren’t bombarded by the infamous young Arab men, or what they are called as the “shabaab.” Now, a few weeks after the game, the girls that had the hardest time with it have expressed that it was hard for them to want to go out and talk on the streets as they should for school but that things are now getting better and were grateful for the young men that strived to protect them.