Gender controversy in Africa

• AFP, Tuesday, November 23, 2010 1:18 PM

Equitorial Guinea has strongly denounced accusations that two players on their women's national team that qualified for the 2011 FIFA World Cup were men. Its soccer federation (Feguifoot) released a statement attacking what it termed "a slanderous campaign by international media" after questions were raised over the sex of two of their women internationals.

Feguifoot media officer David Monsuy told AFP: "They are saying that Genoveva Ayong Man and Salimata Simpaore are men. It was the press in Nigeria which started it, with Cameroon following afterwards."

The statement said: "The accusations of the presumed presence of two men in the Nzalang women's team are totally without foundation. ... At the women's CAN [Africa Cup of Nations] in South Africa they emerged as key players, a fact that has frightened some other African women's sides."

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