Sudanese women footballers tackle hurdles to play the game

"We could not prepare properly," said Majidi. "And it has recently become hard to practise on a regular basis."

Majidi has faced a tough challenge before. She was also the first Arab woman to coach a men's football team, including several of Sudan's second league men's clubs. 

Team captain Fatma Gadal was among the women who resisted state-sanctioned gender discrimination during Bashir's three-decade rule.

For years, she and others had to navigate myriad obstacles to play the game, snatching opportunities to practise when they could, on pitches out of sight of public view.

While under Bashir there was no legal ban on women's football, a conservative society coupled with the Islamist leanings of the government left it in the shadows.

Gadal said they had to "often look for secluded areas" to train, as many viewed football as a "masculine sport".

"People were generally against it, and we were often kicked out of fields when we were seen playing," Gadal said. 

Women were at the forefront of mass protests against Bashir, voicing their pent up anger against decades of inequality and restrictive policies that severely diminished their role in society. 

Along with Bashir's rule, the uprising eventually did away with public order laws that imposed stiff restrictions on women's actions and dress in public, sparking hopes for a more liberal Sudan. 

 Hard-won liberties 

But after the October coup, which derailed a transition that had been painstakingly negotiated between military and civilian leaders, many fear the hard-won liberties gained since Bashir's ouster will be rolled back.