Female Footballers Covered Head to Toe Inflame Islamists

In the end, members of the Libyan women’s soccer team decided they wouldn’t pose for an official photograph. They talked about standing with their backs to the camera and concluded it would just be too risky.

They train in different venues every week, with addresses shared at the last minute by phone messages and texts. As they ran drills recently in Tripoli, they were guarded by a security detail carrying machine guns. The rise of religious extremists since the fall of Muammar Qaddafi has made it dangerous for women to even practice Libya’s favorite sport.