Hijab no obstacle for ladies football

An Iranian Muslim woman, who wears a hijab while playing ladies football, has hailed the open-minded nature of the GAA community.

Mansoreh Abolhassani, who moved to Belfast in 2011 and took up ladies football two years ago, is the subject of a two-part series on BBC Two Northern Ireland titled Níos Mó Ná Cluiche (More Than a Game) which airs on Sunday at 10.30am.

Mansoreh is studying Law at Queens and discovered Gaelic games when she received an email about the University’s international ladies football team. She was keen to try out but unsure whether she would be allowed play without being asked to remove her hijab.