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Jawahir Roble MBE

Women's Coach, Middlesex FA

Jawahir Roble MBE is a Somali-born British football referee. The Daily Telegraph has called her “the most remarkable referee in England”. She herself has said, “Who would ever think a black, Somali-born immigrant girl with eight siblings could ref a men’s game in England with a hijab on?”.

Jawahir was born in Somalia and grew up in north-west London with her parents and eight siblings. She has said, “We always played football in the garden, in the house, outside, everywhere”.
Jawahir is a Muslim and wears a hijab when working as a referee. In 2014, aged 19, she became more serious about how to encourage Muslim girls to play football. In 2013, she and Ciara Allan, the local Middlesex County FA women with a new Desi division for girls.

In 2017, she was one of eleven award winners at the Respect Awards, and collected the Match Official prize. Jawahir’s award was in recognition of her volunteering work for the education charity Football Beyond Borders (FBB) and with the Middlesex FA, coaching FBB’s first women’s team, as well as for achieving a Level Six refereeing qualification. She is an FA Youth Leader. She was recognized as one of the BBC’s 100 women of 2019.

Jawahir was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to association football