Egyptian women take on American football

Women in Egypt on Sunday continued to wear their helmets and shoulder pads amid a battle of gender stereotypes surrounding American football in the North African country.

Female American football athletes endured prejudiced comments; men saying the field was not a place for women and that they belong in the kitchen.

"Their answer was sexist because they were unable to imagine a women playing American football," said Nour Ibrahim, a member of Cairo Wolves, one of the first all-female American football teams in Egypt.

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Ibrahim, a daughter of an Egyptian mother and an American father, fell in love with the oval ball during a student exchange program in a small town in the state of Mississippi, the United States, and when she returned to Egypt in 2015, she contacted the Cairo Wolves.

After three years of not giving up, Ibrahim got to see how the number of the all-female teams has gone from zero to eight and the number of players to 500.

Ibrahim explained a tryout was organized by the Cairo Wolves after a post on Facebook, which had "a great impact."

"The post reached lots of people. To reach the point of the tryout it took some convincing and some people of the team agreed to shut us up," the 26-year-old added.

Some 30 women, several of whom were veiled, showed up to tryouts ready to take the field with helmets and shoulder pads.

American football was first introduced in Egypt in 2008 by Ahmed al-Rifaey, an Egyptian that was trained in the US and came back home to make the sport popular.