For Bilkisu Kandeh-Turay, representing her country should have been the pinnacle of her career. Yet, despite the arrival of Isha Johansen as the first female president of the Sierra Leone Football Association in 2013, it had turned into a nightmare. “We didn’t get kits, proper food, medical facilities, transport … nothing,” Kandeh-Turay says. “I started raising these concerns and spoke with some FA officials. They said they were planning to do something, but they didn’t.”
The talented striker, who went on to captain the under-20s team, was 17 in 2017 when she complained to the senior women’s team coach, Abdulai Bah, about the poor conditions. Kandeh-Turay alleges that he responded by sending her pictures of his penis and pornographic videos, as well as “asking me for sex every day” over the next few months.
