This activation turns a football pitch into a medium to give young Arab girls the reassurance they need to believe that they belong in sports just as much as men do, despite what society has told them for generations.

That is what makes this activation relevant for the media category.

In the Arab world, sports have always been looked at culturally as not being appropriate for women. As a result of this belief being perpetuated for generations, most young Arab girls feel discouraged from pursuing sports and grow up believing that there is no room for Arab women in the professional sports world. In fact, 73% of them give up on sports by the age of 14.

Most young Arab girls hailing from conventional families grow up believing that sports are not for them. Because traditional Middle Eastern society has always insinuated that sports are not appropriate for women.

Resulting in 73% of young Arab girls giving up playing sports by the age of 14.

Ironically, in the Arabic language, most words associated with sports have a female gender. Words like ball, run, kick, jump, goal, shoot, pass and even the word sport itself are female words.

All these words end with the Arabic letter "Ta'Marbuta". Written as a circle with two dots on top.

This letter is what gives Arabic words their female gender.

Just as the "Ta'Marbuta" at the end of Arabic words gives them the female gender, we found a way to put it on a football pitch. By simply adding two dots right above the already existing center circle.

Following the same logic as the language itself, this letter gave the pitch a gender to - female.

Resulting in the world's first pitch to have a gender - female.

The first Female Field was created by adding the two dots on the home ground of Onyx FC, UAE's only all-women-owned and operated football team.

adidas had just signed Onyx FC. UAE's first and only owned and operated football team.

Our task was to announce this new sponsorship.

So, instead of simply announcing the addition of Onyx FC to the adidas family, we chose to do something that stands for Onyx FC's ethos. To give every girl the confidence and opportunity to play the sport she loves.

Whatever we did, needed to be simple enough to look like anyone could do it, yet powerful enough to spark conversations about the need for more support for women in sports.

The act of creating the Female Field was deliberately kept minimalistic and simple, yet powerful and unmissable. Additionally, because all it takes is two dots of any shape and form added over the centre circle, it was intended to be recreated anywhere.

We started by releasing teasers on social media to highlight the fact that sports-related words in Arabic all have a female gender.

Then we filmed the addition of the two dots to the Onyx FC home pitch, by the captain of the team herself.

Followed by a series of content pieces shot at this new Female Field with different players of Onyx FC, further reinforcing our message.

Soon enough, ours was no longer the only female field. We saw countless ones popping up all across Dubai, and not just on football fields. Basketball courts, beach football pitches, even Ice Hockey rinks were being turned into Female Fields.

- 165% increase in sign-ups for all-girl training programs

- +220 million reach across 19 countries

- 38 female fields organically created by communities across Dubai

- The female field is being taken to regional federations such as Saudi Arabia Football Federation, Saudi Pro League, and Al Nasr Club, who are all currently working towards elevating their women's football divisions.

Sports have always been perceived as taboo for women across many countries in the Middle East. While restrictions are not enforced anywhere, traditional mindsets still prevail in many societies that believe that many sports are inappropriate for girls, especially after a certain age.

Resulting in many young girls growing up to believe that pursuing their sports passions isn't something meant for them.

In this same region, the language spoken by millions has a surprising irony built in. All sports-related words, the same words that people use to propagate that sports are meant for men, are all in fact female in gender.