NYU Abu Dhabi’s Athletics Department will be hosting the second annual Week of Women in Sports to celebrate and encourage female participation in athletics. The week of programming will take place from March 6 to 11 and will include panel discussions, virtual workshops and active sessions.

Upon registration, each participant will receive a welcome pack that includes the week’s schedule as well as goodies such as phone wallpapers and Zoom backgrounds. The pack comes with an active challenge card featuring different activities participants can complete to earn raffle entries. The draw will take place the following Thursday and a range of prizes will be up for grabs.

Mindful of Zoom fatigue, the organizers of WOW decided to limit the number of webinars to four while ensuring they are beneficial for all participants. Topics covered in these virtual discussions range from mental health to the experiences of female athletes in male-dominated environments.

The week will also include virtual fitness classes such as yoga and HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training), led by coaches at NYUAD. Most webinars and online happenings are exclusive to female-identifying participants since WOW aims to provide intimate spaces for women to feel comfortable and supported, though men are also welcome in certain sessions.

Lyne Ismail, Athletics Administrator and Special Projects Coordinator, is one of the organizers. “[The week is about] bringing women to step into their own power and recognize that they have the chance to change the course of their destiny and step into these things that make them feel better and not … feel like they have to reach a very high standard in order to be considered an athlete,” said Ismail.

This is the second year the university has organized the event. While this year they cannot physically host prominent guest speakers such as Victoria Jackson and Carrie Lecrom, Ismail hopes this year’s programming will be just as rewarding for attendees.

“[We want to explore] what does it mean to be a woman playing sport, like what are these perceptions that people have of women, especially in the Arab world … how can we start to shift these perceptions and help improve women’s confidence and their ability to step on the field and know … ‘I deserve to be here, I have a right to be here,’” said Ismail.

This year, there is a focus on reaching out to Emirati women. Ismail observed that they are often not as engaged as women of other nationalities: “They might have their own specific niche elements. They might do women-only in-person classes, they might not get active as much. So we thought, ‘Okay, how can we do something that allows women to come and join and interact.’” She noted that the women-only virtual environment has been very helpful in breaking these barriers, which might not have been possible in person.

When asked about the genesis of WOW, Ismail expressed that since NYUAD has been a champion of gender equality and female participation in sports, it was only natural for them to go a step further and dedicate a week to the cause.

Peter Dicce, Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Athletics, Intramurals and Recreation, who pioneered the Abu Dhabi Inter-University Sports League, was adamant that every school must enter a female team for each of the sports they participate in. The university also supports the HERSports initiative which brings together women from the wider Abu Dhabi community to play sports recreationally.

“The sense of camaraderie and connection is a big aspect of what drives what we do, we want to be able to show that Falcon Feeling of NYUAD Athletics and what NYUAD largely does,” shared Ismail.

Though there is still a long road ahead to equality in sports, Ismail hopes that WOW will play a part in this journey: “Hopefully, in the future we won’t need to have a week of women in sports because it would already be equal … equality and sport would just be the social norm.”

The Week of Women in Sports starts today and you can still register here.