It started as a joke. After a five-hour climb and 90 minutes of football in thin air, the players from Equal Playing Field sat back. At 5,714m above sea level, in the crater at the top of Kilimanjaro, they had secured the world record for the highest-altitude football match. Why? To highlight gender inequality. To show that women are strong, ambitious and deserving of equal opportunities. Elated after their epic journey, they jested about the next stage of their campaign. The highest altitude? Let’s do the lowest, they mused.
Except with two Jordanian women in their ranks, and their home country hosting the AFC Women’s Asian Cup, the joking turned to planning. Because the Dead Sea shore, at about 420m below sea level, is the lowest-altitude land on earth.
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