Cairo (AFP)

At the World Handball Championship in Egypt, Julie and Charlotte Bonaventura can easily find their way around: the Marseille twins, among the best pairs of referees in the world, gently impose respect and are, despite themselves, examples in a very masculine environment.

On the footbridge that connects the two modern towers to the historic building of the Gezira Palace, the hotel in central Cairo set up as a sanitary bubble, hard to miss the two small jigs, aged 40 and greeted by players and coaches.

"We are still a curiosity in the global landscape but people know us more and more," Julie told AFP.

"Of course we get more noticed as women and twins than any pair here."

It has now been more than a decade, since obtaining their international badge in 2008, that the Marseillaises crisscross France, Europe and the world to referee handball matches, men or women.

In 2012 in London, they became the first women to lead a women's Olympic final.

And in 2017 in France, they are once again in full light, the first women to officiate at a men's World Cup.

What does Egypt have in store for them?

The pair will know on Tuesday, at the end of the main round, whether they will participate in the quarter-finals, their fate being in the hands of the International Federation (IHF).

"We never projected each other," says Charlotte.

- 40-50 matches per year -

Otherwise, a glance in the rearview mirror makes you dizzy: at the rate of between 40 and 50 matches per year, or almost one per week, since their debut in French men's D1 in 2007, the two forties have "kilometers on the clock, "Charlotte laughs.

A passion for sport which, if it is well compensated - 600 euros plus 100 during the week for a men's D1 match, 350 plus 100 for the women's D1 - has a cost: that of private life.

Employed in a retirement fund, Charlotte is fortunate to have a large stock of holidays.

In order to be able to cover the French championships and the Champions League, both male and female, she "draws in cheerfully".

"On a typical year, I manage to save + 4-5 days for me."

And rest in Aubagne, where they live, after having gone too far.

After an economic layoff, Julie plans to share her experience as an international arbitrator in company seminars: too complicated to find a salaried job compatible with her insane schedule.

- "Let competence speak" -

The Bonaventura sisters are aware of being "a bit of UFOs in this world of arbitration" and, unwittingly, examples for equality between men and women.

"We have neither this pretension nor this desire", tempers Julie, "but it is clear that yes, we have this role and that we have young pairs, boys and girls, who take us as models" .

The Egyptian experience is enriching in this regard, in a country where women are very remote in the public space.

Appointed referees of the Croatia-Bahrain match, the twin sisters aroused the admiration of the other referees.

"Our colleagues told us that they had never seen these teams, Croatia like Bahrain, behave so well," said Julie.

"The attitude of the Bahraini players was a pleasant surprise, because it was feared that they would not agree to have female referees", recognizes Charlotte.

"And in the end, it went really well."

Used to meeting them for years, professional handball players "do not even think about saying that we are women," said Charlotte.

And do not talk to them about quotas, after the failed experience of the Women's Euro, in December, led only by female pairs.

"The teams were disappointed" with the level of refereeing, "but in fact they expected it," said Julie.

"When you designate according to gender and not for qualities, you cannot expect to have top level in all matches. Competence has to speak."

In Cairo, obviously, she speaks for two.

© 2021 AFP