Soccer star Mohammad Salah: Middle Eastern men 'need to change the way we treat women'

Mohammad Salah is one of the most gifted — and most beloved — soccer players in the world. That became all the more evident when Time named the Liverpool and Egyptian national team striker to the magazine's list of the world's 100 most influential people on Wednesday. He even graced one of the six different covers of the issue.

Salah used the opportunity to speak about issues that go well beyond the realm of soccer. Salah said men in his home country of Egypt and across Muslim communities need to treat women differently. "I think we need to change the way we treat women in our culture," Salah said. "It's not optional."

Comedian John Oliver wrote Salah's blurb, calling him "a better human being than" he is a soccer player. Which is certainly saying a lot, given Salah's prodigious skills on the pitch. Oliver also added that the 26-year-old Salah seems little affected by his celebrity — Salah himself said that fans in the Middle East think of him as their son, yet Oliver wrote that he remains humble, thoughtful, and funny.

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Salah backed that up in his interview with Time, where he explained that he now supports women even more than he did before because he feels they deserve more respect than they are given. Read more at Time.