Moroccan Referee Bouchra Karboubi Stole the Spotlight at 2021 AFCON

Rabat – Moroccan referee Bouchra Karboubi stole the spotlight during the 2021 African Nations Cup final between Senegal and Egypt. Karboubi was part of the arbitration team assigned to lead the VAR zone alongside other referees.

During the ceremony of Senegal’s historic AFCON victory, the camera captured a memorable moment of Karboubi taking a selfie with Liverpool-star Sadio Mane. Many Moroccans took to social media to share words of praise about the Moroccan referee.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has chosen several female officials to officiate the AFCON matches. The All-women team became the first-ever to officiate a match at the AFCON since its establishment in 1957.

Karboubi was appointed in 2018, among the referees of Elite A category inside the CAF and officiated matches in the final stages of the Women’s African Cup of Nations (AFCON) in the same year.

She was chosen by the International Football Federation (FIFA) in 2020 to officiate in the finals of the Women’s World Cup, scheduled in Australia and New Zealand in 2023, alongside another Moroccan referee, Fatiha Jermoumi.

Karboubi first entered the history of Moroccan football, after having officiated a match of the Botola Pro D1 between the Olympic club of Khouribga (OCK) and Moghreb Athletic of Tetouan (MAT) in 2020.

In 2014, she passed a physical test to arbitrate men’s matches. Two years later, she became an international referee.

Born in Taza, Kerboubi is the youngest of five children. Her passion for football arose at a young age but being from a small and conservative town, her brothers opposed her wish to play football.

“I was raised in a patriarchal environment with big brothers who did not accept to see me dressed in shorts playing sports,” she said in an interview with UN Women Morocco.

In a society where football is a male-dominated field, the 34-year old referee went through several hardships to fulfill her dreams with the full support of her mother who agreed to let her go play football secretly.

Not only is she an international football referee, Karboubi is also a police inspector at the Prefectural Directorate of the Judicial Police in Meknes, as well as a wife and mother to a young girl.

“The dream of becoming a police officer accompanied me throughout my childhood. When I was asked the usual question about what job I would like to do more, my answer was always to become a police officer,” she noted.

Karboubi emphasized that she receives moral support from her colleagues and from Morocco’s General Directorate of National Security that encourages her to live her passion.

Her husband, whom she first met when he was an assistant referee, “was very supportive” when she decided to start training to join the police forces.

“If there is a job that men manage to do, then women can do it too. It is true that we can be different but this does not impact the ability of women to exercise the professions that interest them,” she argued.

Karboubi provides another example of passionate Moroccan women who broke into fields that were once attributed to men only. She prides herself in being a positive influence and an inspiration to women in Morocco and beyond.