Football Spring in the Middle East and North Africa

• Authors: Aleksandra Dzisiów-Szuszczykiewicz
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Football beloved and admired as a game throughout the entire world has its own fans and followers in the Middle East and North Africa. The game, that arouses extreme emotions, evokes tensions, but that can also unify people. The first chapter of the article presents these roles and meanings of football in the Middle East and North Africa. It also discusses the marriage of football and politics. This marriage seems particularly important in the context of the processes and events, that have began in December 2010 in the discussed region called the Arab Spring. The second chapter of the article is devoted to the role of football in this period and in these events and processes. The last part of the article summary argues that to understand the Middle East and North African regions, its societies, socio-political relations and processes, it is worth to observe sport events, especially football ones, in the region, as it is a mirror of these phenomenon. It confirms the articles thesis about the importance of football in the Middle East and North Africa. It argues that with regard to the fact that football has been accompanying the regions societies and nations through the years, it could have not been absent during the Arab Spring.

• Publisher: Instytut Kultur Śródziemnomorskich i Orientalnych PAN
• Journal: Hemispheres. Studies on Cultures and Societies
• Year: 2012
• Issue: 27
• Pages: 195-213

Contributors

author

Aleksandra Dzisiów-Szuszczykiewicz