The World Cup, culture and Palestine
This post was written by a student. It has not been fact checked or edited.
The world cup and the events accompanying it are taking up the world's attention and preoccupying me as well. Watching the world cup and the amazing arrangements of Qatar makes me even more passionate about football. Apart from the teams' wonderful performances and the stunning goals players score, there are the cultural overlaps that the world is witnessing, and the presence of my country "Palestine" in the World Cup.
Watching the crowds in and outside the stadiums, you will see people from Brazil, Portugal, and England.. etc wearing the traditional "ghutra", headscarves that men in Qatar wear on their heads, on their own flag's colors. You will see a Korean youngster talking Arabic and drinking "Karak chai", a very popular tea in the Gulf region of the Middle East. You will see Muslim women wearing Hijab trying to communicate with women from Senegal wearing their traditional dress "boubou".
When people watch football they forget about their differences and they unite together under the name of one slogan that they don't say, but express "we are all humans".
Palestine is strongly apparent in this version of the world cup. Watching the Morroco and Spain match yesterday, I was really happy to see the Morrocan players celebrate with a Palestinian flag. It amazed me and even made me cry to see that the Morrocan crowd in the audience is holding the Palestinian flag and cheering for Palestine. It is as if Palestine won the match. Of course, it is a great accomplishment for Palestinians to see people from other Arab countries supporting us. They are helping us to send a message to the whole world to find a solution for our cause.
Seeing all of these people from different nationalities communicating and cheering for my cause "the Palestinian cause" makes you sure that football is not only a game, but it is also a passion that I would love to call the "consolidator of humanity".