The future of Bahrain women’s 3x3 basketball looks bright from where Bayan Salman is standing. Fresh off the court following Bahrain’s title victory at the Under-21 Gulf 3x3 Basketball Championships, in November, for which Bayan was named the tournament’s most valuable player (MVP), she speaks about the potential to build a sustainable future for women’s basketball in the Kingdom.
At the age of 20, her vision for Bahrain Basketball’s future could be considered beyond her years. “We want to inspire and build the next generation,” she says. “We really want to promote women’s sport and basketball, and also to create more opportunities for women, which have definitely increased during the past year.”
Born and raised in the UK, during her basketball education, Bayan consistently made the three-hour round trip from her childhood home to train with the Women’s British Basketball League (WBBL) team Sevenoaks Suns. When she moved to Bahrain, her parent’s country of birth, she was 16 – and, following a year out of the game, has since boosted her credentials on and off the court, which has helped ignite her passion for growing the sport domestically.
“I started playing basketball when I was eight or nine,” Bayan continues. “My parents introduced me to many different sports: tennis, athletics, basketball, football, netball, cross-country. I continued basketball and tennis for a while and really enjoyed playing a team sport. When I started playing basketball regularly, I was scouted by Sevenoaks Suns and travelled 1.5 hours to practice and back, to gain some valuable experience and help push me on.”
Bayan participated in her first tournament for Bahrain in 2022 at the Under-18 World Cup before making her senior debut at the GCC national-team regional championships a week later.” I did not do very well in that tournament,” she says. “It was my first senior appearance for Bahrain and my performance did affect me mentally. However, my coaches believed in me 100%, and when I started playing 3x3 more, and gained more experience, we went on to win the 2023/24 NEOM 3x3 Women’s Cup in Saudi Arabia.
“It feels amazing,” she said of the Bahrain women’s national team’s successes in recent years. “Everyone on the team works really hard. Seeing the results does mean a lot to us. We want to make history and put women’s basketball Bahrain on the map and continue to increase participation and attendance in women’s basketball. I’ve just stayed persistent and kept showing up. I knew it was going to work out if I put the work in. I’m still not where I want to be but I’m enjoying my basketball. There’s still more to come, for sure.”
Bayan has also thrown her support into international clinics for girls’ basketball and providing education for future generations of players. In April 2025, the Bahrain Basketball Association (BBA) was recognized via the FIBA Foundation Asian Youth Leadership Program, and in her capacity as a youth leader, Bayan expressed her eagerness to expand the program back home in Bahrain.
“Looking ahead, I want to help put Bahrain on the map internationally and future generations of girls to take up basketball,” Bayan expands. “We want to make a stamp for Bahrain and to set a benchmark. Across every generation, the higher you put the stamp, the higher the next generation will aim. I also like how basketball and the FIBA Foundation connects people off the court. I want people to have fun when they play. Being kind to each other is an important ingredient.”
She also co-led a Basketball For Good clinic in Malaysia during the 2025 FIBA Under-16 Women’s Asia Cup, working with more than 32 young girls from Kuala Lumpur. The clinic combined basketball drills with life-skills education across healthy living, gender equality, and environmental awareness. The opportunity arose after Bayan and her teammate Aya Moamen won a pitch at the FIBA Foundation Youth Leadership Workshop in Singapore in 2024, which granted them the opportunity to run basketball clinics.
“We are seeing a lot of success from the efforts off the court,” Bayan says. “We’re focused on gender equality, health and wellbeing, and sustainability – three important areas for developing the women’s game. It was really cool to connect with people from other countries during the clinic in Malaysia and to make an impact there. The girls left the clinic with more knowledge about gender equality and feeling more empowered.”