Sports
International Football Association Bans Islamic Women's Head-scarves
by THOMAS ERDBRINK
Not participating in the 2012 London Olympics is a nightmare for every serious athlete, but for the Iranian women’s soccer team the defeat was extra bitter after they were disqualified right before a crucial qualifying match because they wore Islamic headscarves.
Ready to play a crucial Olympic qualifying match with Jordan in Amman on Friday, the Iranian team was dismissed by officials of the international football association, FIFA. The officials decided just before the kickoff that the tight headscarves the Iranian players were wearing to cover their hair broke the association’s dress code, FIFA said on Monday.
After Jordan was awarded a 3-0 victory, Iran’s players took to the field crying, Press TV, Iranian state TV’s English-language outlet, reported.
In the Islamic Republic of Iran all women are obliged to cover their hair, neck, arms and legs according to the state’s interpretation of Shiite Islamic tenets. Female athletes who compete internationally have to obey the country’s dress code. Iranian women athletes have excelled during international events in sports such as karate and volleyball, but are notably absent from sports such as swimming and gymnastics.
“This ruling means that women soccer in Iran is over,” said Shahrzad Mozafar, the team’s former head coach. She said that now that FIFA is no longer allowing Iranian women to wear scarves, the Iranian government will no longer send them abroad for competitions. “Headscarves are simply what we wear in Iran,” she said.
In April 2010 FIFA announced that it was planning to ban headscarves and other religious outings during the 2012 Olympics. Following the ruling, Iran’s team designed special headscarves that players wrapped tightly around their heads and necks. The team said they were in line with guidelines set by the football association.
FIFA did not agree and told the Associated Press on Monday that its officials had been right to stop the Iranian women from playing the qualifier. Iranian officials were “informed thoroughly” before Friday's match against Jordan that the headscarf covering a woman’s neck is banned for safety reasons, an unidentified FIFA official said.
The Iranian football organization, which is lead by allies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is planning to protest the ruling.
Mozafar said the ruling killed professional athletic ambitions of Iranian women.
“When a serious woman athlete can’t participate internationally, which ambitions are left for her?” she said.
Special correspondent Kay Armin Serjoie contributed to this report.
[Courtesy: The Washington Post]
June 11, 2011
Conversation about this article
1: G. Singh (U.S.A.), June 12, 2011, 2:48 PM.
Does it mean that Sikh players can't play in field hockey anymore? Is there a difference between religious discrimination and other type? Somehow the West thinks that their standard of what constitutes acceptable and not acceptable means of dress code is the only way. Speaking eloquently about secularism, equality and what not but at the same time imposing bans on headscarves, turbans, religious beliefs, does not reflect good will for other communities. Perhaps other nations should take notice and boycott sending their teams.
2: Aman (California, U.S.A.), June 13, 2011, 1:40 PM.
I agree with G. Singh. This is a dangerous precedent for Sikhs. I am hopeful that the banning of the headscarf is because the governing body is making a statement about women's rights, not about religion. Turbans should not be seen in the same light. We wear turbans because we are spiritually sovereign as Sikhs. Headscarves, etc. are worn by these women because they are told that doing otherwise sexualizes them.
3: Nanaki Kaur (Ludhiana, Punjab), June 13, 2011, 1:52 PM.
The issues are the same - vis-a vis Sikhs or Muslims or whosoever. First, all people have the right to practice their faiths and beliefs, as THEY seem fit ... as long as it does not contravene the normal laws of the land. Secondly, no one - no nation, no government, no society - has the right to tell any religious group how to practice its beliefs - as long as the groups stay within the normal laws of the land. Period. This outrage against Muslim women is no different from an assault against the Sikh turban or the Jewish Yarmulke - to take but two examples - in these respects, even though the reasons each item is worn may be for different reasons or of a different degree of significance to the wearer. According to Sikhi, remember, your right to wear a turban requires you to defend the right of people of other faiths to practice their own, different beliefs. There are no ifs and buts about this.