Munira Ramadan Abkar Muhammad Warsha is a pioneer, being the first Sudanese woman to work as a football referee and the first known woman football referee in the Arab world and Africa.

Munira was born in one of Omdurman’s oldest neighbourhoods, Al Abbasiya, Sudan, in 1955. She embarked on her sporting career in the 1970s, spearheading the way for women in what was a male dominated industry. Munira soon made a name for herself, as well as her famous hairstyle. After working at the Sudan Ministry of Youth and Sports and the University of Khartoum for five years, she became a football referee in 1975. She was the first woman to work as a football referee in Sudan, refereeing major matches for men’s football in the Khartoum League from 1975 to 1980.

Before establishing herself as the first female referee, Munira already had already achieved a number of significant firsts. She worked as a swimming teacher at the University of Khartoum and was the first Sudanese woman to participate in swimming and discus throwing competitions, becoming the national champion of Sudan. She then went on to join Sudan’s first national women’s basketball team, established by Huda Zein El Abdein, and received her basketball referee and coaching certifications at the same time. Munira also worked as a trainer for the Women's Union in Khartoum and the Women's Military Union in Khartoum, and was Secretary of the Swimming Federation and Secretary of the Athletics Federation.

In 1980 Munira left the football profession and continued to make her own path. She established the Institute of Fitness in Khartoum and Khartoum North in 1980, under her own name, merging her love of sports with business savvy. She then obtained a diploma in physical education from the Higher Institute of Physical Education in Khartoum in 1981. In 1984, Munira left Sudan and settled with her husband in Saudi Arabia. She went on to establish a school for learning the Qur’an and to work as a teacher and supervisor in Mecca and Jeddah.

Munira is truly a pioneer figure for women in sport and industry, for Sudan but also for the wider region and the world, inspiring generations that would follow her. Fast forwarding to recent times, three female football referees from Sudan were tapped by FIFA to run the Tokyo 2020 Olympic primaries in the Chad versus Algeria games. This feat may not have been possible if not for Ramadan’s accomplishments 45 years earlier.

---

Munira’s story was found in a copy of Sudan’s Radio, Television and Theatre Magazine from 1976, contributed to Sudan Memory by Jannis Stürtz/Habibi Funk, in addition to a number of more recent articles inspired by Munira’s life.