A instructor in Cyprus is placing the doubters to disgrace and difficult youngsters to rethink what is feasible
Particular schooling instructor by day, soccer referee by weekends and afternoons. This twin career shouldn’t be groundbreaking, however in Cyprus if you’re a girl on the soccer area it’s actually uncommon. Why? As a result of regardless of a long time of progress, some areas stay stubbornly male.
However change is occurring. When girls unite, they carry game-changing tales to mild. Doris Myrianthea, the instructor who swaps textbooks for pink playing cards has had her stpry immortalised in an award-winning youngsters’s e book Ta Papoutsia tis Daskalas (The Trainer’s Footwear), which was just lately honoured on the island’s 2024 Nationwide Literature Awards.
Written by Despina Eracleous and illustrated by Chryso Charalambous, the e book challenges gender stereotypes, encouraging youngsters – women and boys alike – to dream. It follows a instructor who shocks her college students once they uncover she’s additionally a referee, a narrative rooted in Doris’ real-life experiences and the Cypriot actuality that Despina desires to alter.
“What number of statues of ladies have you ever seen in our metropolis?” Nicosia-based Despina asks. “Public monuments form how we see gender roles, identical to media protection does. What number of articles have you ever examine feminine referees in Cyprus? Have you ever ever seen a particular characteristic on them on TV?”
As an educator, Despina has heard boys shout the insult you “run like a lady” and declare that “soccer is for boys.” When she discovered about Doris’ struggles with sexist feedback, verbal harassment and bullying, she knew she needed to write a narrative tackling gender bias.
Doris, who has spent 13 years on the sphere in Cyprus, has seen all of it. “After I began, there have been solely 4 feminine referees in all of Cyprus, and we weren’t accepted in any respect,” she remembers. “Males noticed soccer as their territory, and we have been intruding.”
The hostility didn’t simply come from these on the sphere – she’s endured degrading feedback from the stands, together with sexist remarks about girls’s our bodies and roles. However she refused to be discouraged. In 2015, after years of coaching, she turned a world soccer referee.
“I don’t hand over simply,” she says. “After I began, I advised myself I’d both turn into nice at this or stop. However quitting was by no means actually an choice. I used to be decided to show that girls can do that too. Gender doesn’t decide capability, efficiency, or decision-making. When women discover out that I’m a soccer referee, their eyes sparkle. If I perceive the sport, I can officiate simply in addition to any man.”
The e book additionally champions inclusivity. Its illustrations depict a various classroom, and its message goes past the standard Cypriot holy grail – for kids to turn into docs or legal professionals.
Within the e book, Despina tells the way it all started – in a classroom when she invited Doris, who was working on the similar faculty on the time – to talk about her function as a referee.
“The category was excited!” remembers Despina. “Particularly the boys who have been leaping up and down. I requested them to attract a referee in order that we might put their drawings on the wall to embellish the room. All of them drew males.”
When Doris walked into the classroom, there was confusion. “You must have seen the youngsters’s faces,” Despina remembers, “Priceless! Some wouldn’t transfer; others began to shout ‘That’s Ms Doris. Why are you mendacity Miss?’ Some boys have been offended and one boy began to cry. They didn’t imagine me after I stored telling them that Ms Doris was the referee.”
After listening to Doris’ story and seeing pictures and movies of her on the sphere, the youngsters have been requested to attract photos once more – of firefighters, pilots, and footballers. This time, they drew each men and women.
This shift in perspective is likely one of the e book’s strongest takeaways. The inclusion of the youngsters’s authentic drawings makes it much more impactful. And due to its vibrant, expressive illustrations, Ta Papoutsia tis Daskalas isn’t only a lesson – it’s an invite for all readers, younger and outdated, to rethink what’s attainable.
The title itself drives dwelling the e book’s message. “I believe is essential to stroll in somebody’s sneakers,” says Despina. “To develop empathy, acceptance, respect and mutual understanding, particularly in as of late the place there may be battle throughout us. Footwear don’t decide a girl’s identification and skills.”
On the time of the e book’s launch, an argument erupted when an schooling ministry official claimed it was unacceptable for feminine fitness center academics in excessive colleges to put on excessive heels. The comment made headlines, prompting one other ministry official to step in and make clear that this was not an official stance.
Tales like Doris’, and books like Ta Papoutsia tis Daskalas, are testomony to girls who’ve defied the percentages – and to each youngster with a dream.
“The message is evident,” Despina concludes. “For those who work actually arduous you will be no matter you need, it doesn’t matter what others say. That is particularly essential at this time, when femicides, violence in opposition to girls and gender inequality, pose an enormous violence of human rights. Books like these can empower younger women and can be utilized as a car for social transformation.”
Discover the e book in Parga and Soloneion bookshops or order it on-line
