Young girls in the Middle East are still growing up believing that sports are not meant for women. In fact, most girls in the region give up on sports by the age of 14.

Ironically, in the Arabic language that predates these cultural beliefs, most words associated with the world of sports all have a female gender.

What gives these Arabic words their female gender is a letter at the end: ة (Ta’ Marbuta).

If this simple circle with two dots on top makes Arabic words female, perhaps the same can be true if we were to put two dots on top of circles that already exist in the middle of a football field.

So, in association with Onyx FC, UAE’s first and only all-female owned and operated football team, we turned their home ground from an ‘it’ to a ‘she’.

By adding two dots above the center circle of their field, we turned it into the Ta’Marbuta. Effectively creating The World’s First Pitch With a Female Gender.

The simplicity of just adding two dots on any sports field with a circle made it really easy to copy. Not surprisingly, that’s exactly what happened. Within weeks, ours was no longer the only Female Field in the city. Soon enough, every community in Dubai had a female field made by people to remind young girls and women everywhere that they’ve always belonged in sports. It’s not us saying it. It’s Arabic.

Our billboards feature kufic calligraphy of Arabic words taken from common sports lingo to highlight that women have always been part of the sports world.

They challenge social and cultural biases, affirming their rightful place in the game.

Agency: Havas Middle East
Client: Adidas
Executive Creative Directors: Joao Medeiros, Leonardo Borges
General Manager: Fabio Silveira
Creative Directors: Serena Abiaad
Associate Creative Directors: Moemen El Siwi, Michele De Iuliis
Senior Art Directors: Alicia McBride, Moataz Safar
Group CD: Anshuman Bhattacharya
Senior Copywriter: Samantha Pires
Arabic Copywriter: Ali Darwich, Nagat Idris, Karim Sherif