The referee, Bushra Karboubi, uses her whistle and cards on the field to manage matches and maintain order, but in her daily job, she relies on handcuffs rather than yellow or red cards. Karboubi became the first woman to referee a match as the main referee in the 34th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations held in Côte d'Ivoire when she officiated the match between Guinea-Bissau and Nigeria in the third round of the group stage, making her the second woman to referee a match in the tournament's history, after Rwandan Salima Mukansanga (2021 Africa Cup of Nations).
In addition to being an international referee, Karboubi is a police officer in Meknes, northern Morocco, and she stated in interviews with BBC: "Being a police officer means applying justice to me, as a referee, I am the one who enforces the law on the field, and this is my passion. I see that refereeing and policing are interconnected." She is the first Arab female referee to officiate in the men's finals, saying about her participation: "The emotions were overwhelming; it is an honor for me, my family, my country, and for African women in general."
The 36-year-old added: "It is true that I am a police officer and a referee on the field, but at home, I am a mother to a daughter." In her early years, Karboubi loved playing football, but she stopped due to the lack of organized women's competitions at the time, so she decided to venture into refereeing and match administration, seeing many opportunities as a referee.
Karboubi faced rejection from her family at the beginning, as she mentioned in previous statements in 2021: "I come from a small conservative town, so it was difficult for my family to accept that I wanted to pursue a career in sports." Her brothers were her biggest obstacle in life; once they tore up her assistant referee flag, leaving her in tears, but she stitched it back together and continued to train.
However, in 2007, her father saw her officiate a women's match, and since then she has received support to pursue the path she chose, becoming a pioneer for Arab female referees in this field. Alongside being the first Arab woman to officiate a men's match in 2020, Karboubi is also the first African woman to supervise the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) and successfully worked as an assistant video referee in the final of the men’s Africa Cup of Nations 2021.
She officiated her first international women's football match in 2018 at the Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana. Karboubi emphasizes the importance of working harder for female referees, especially physically, to reach the readiness that enables them to officiate men's matches, adding: "Physically, we must have the technical expertise that men possess, of course, because if a male referee makes mistakes, they say it is just a human error, but women face more criticism because they are female."
The Moroccan referee believes that her job in the police and the field of refereeing complement each other: "Refereeing has helped me a lot to be a good police officer, and being a police officer has helped me to have a strong character on the field as a referee." The mother aspires to officiate in the men's World Cup one day, having made her debut at the Women's World Cup last year.
