Muslim Women In Athletics

[EnderD_503]

Yesterday I read a great article in Metro News about female athletes in Arab and Muslim nations. I tried looking for it online on the metronews.ca site, but it doesn't seem to be up there. I'll try to transcribe the whole article later, but basically it was talking about the rise of Muslim women playing football in the Muslim nations.

Some interesting statistics:

There was only one female football team on the West Bank seven years ago, but now there are 16 Palestinian female outdoor fotball teams and 10 indoor teams.

Nine Middle Eastern nations including the UAE, Qatar and Iran have women's football or indoor football leagues.

In some countries only men are allowed to practice on outdoor fields.

Apparently Iran's football association is in conflict with FIFA which bans female athletes from wearing headscarves. The result has been the creation of a market for athletic gear for Muslim women. Apparently a Montreal designer named Elham Seyed Javad has come up with a product called a "sports jihab."

Turkey and Iran have the largest number of the region's female athletes, who have also had success in weightlifting as well on the international level.

Some interesting quotes:

"Love of sport seems to be female atheltes' primary motivation. They also want to gain physical strength and become fit. Many of the are interested in sports for self-defence purposes, which they hope will provide them a higher self-esteem" says one blog on Muslim women in sports.

http://www.muslimwomeninsports.blogspot.com/

"People think of us Palestinians as terrorists. I want to show them that we're peaceful and well-educated." - 26 year old Honey Thaljieh

Basically, I want to use this thread to talk about female athletics in Arab and Muslim nations. Progresses, setbacks and so on. I found this particular article really enlightening and like I said will transcribe it later on since it's not online, and think it' a good read.

Thoughts? Contributions?

[EnderD_503]

Typed out the article in question from Metro World News:

Uprisings in the Middle East have been called a feminist revolution, but for the past several years women have quietly been gaining more freedom – through sports. Today the Arab world is abuzz with female football players, track and field athletes, even weightlifters.

Article by Elisabeth Braw in Metro World News

Honey Thaljieh loves watching international football from her home in Bethlehem. Soon, Thaljieh herself might play on global television: She’s the founder of a new Palestinian women’s soccer team.

“In the beginning it was very difficult,” recalls Thaljieh, 26, who also founded the West Bank’s first female football team seven years ago. Today, there are no less than 16 Palestinian female outdoor teams and 10 indoor teams.

Welcome to the revolution. “During the past five to 10 years, we’ve witnessed success stories in the Muslim world,” explains Sertaç Sehlikoglu, a Turkish PhD student in social anthropoplogy who runs the blog Muslim Women in Sports (muslimwomeninsports.blogspot.com)

“Love of sport seems to be female athlete’ primary motivation. They also want to gain physical strength and become fit. Many of them are interested in sports for self-defence purposes, which they hope will provide them a higher self-esteem.”

Today, nine Middle Eastern countries, including the UAE, Qatar and Iran, have women’s football or futsal (indoor football) leagues.

“People used to think that football was a strange European thing,” says Farrah Sheikh, a 19-year-old who plays in Dubai’s women’s league.

“I had to get special permission to play football in school. Now people are getting used to us playing, though at my university the women’s team is only allowed to play indoors, while the men have two outdoor fields.”

Thaljieh sets her aim on the 2016 Olympics. “Of course we’re not as good as other Arab countries, because we don’t have good facilities to practice in,” she says. “I want to improve women’s chances of doing sports.”

But she has another goal, too. “People think of us Palestinians as terrorists. I want to show them that we’re peaceful and well-educated.”

Quote from Thaljieh: “People said it wasn’t a game for women. Some thought men would look at us in our T-shirts.”

On the same page:

Girl Power: “Women’s Success Is Valuable”

This spring Turkey’s Nurcan Taylan won three gold medals at the European weightlifting championships. Along with Iran, Turkey has the region’s most female athletes.

Bahrain also actively promotes female sports, though women point out that male athletes still receive more money.

Last year, Bahrain hosted the world’s first Women’s Football Cup Arabia.

“There were over 50 female athletes from the Middle East in the last Paralympics in Beijing, China,” said Sertac Sehlikoglu.

“We can certainly expect more women from the Middle East in the 2012 Olympics. Especially since the female athletes’ success in the South Asian Games last year, several Middle Eastern countries have realized that women’s success is valuable for their country.”

On the same page:

Headscarves:

Iran’s football association is on the warpath with FIFA, which bans female players from wearing headscarves. The Middle East’s top female athlete, Ghada Shouaa, is a Christian. But her sisters’ success has created a new market: Athletic gear for Muslim women. For instance, Montreal designer Elham Seyed Javad has created a “sports hijab.”

[Martina]

i used to donate to this charity that distributed soccer shoes to girls in Morocco. last time i tried to look them up they weren't there. Now i have forgotten the website though i must have emails saved somewhere. Anyway it was great to imagine the girls playing soccer.

Unrelated, it seems there are always Tunisian women athletes around. At least i have noticed them. Maybe North Africa is better. So hard to imagine women playing vollyball in Saudi Arabia.

[EnderD_503]

Martina, cool! If you find the link please post it! I'd be interested in taking a look.

Recent issue of mandatory skirts in international badminton:

Badminton's skirt rules cause unease
A new ruling that requires female badminton players to wear skirts on court is causing unease among players as they prepare to adopt the new compulsory dress code.

The Indian Open, which begins next Tuesday, will be the last tournament in which women can wear shorts on court before the skirt requirement comes into force on May 1.
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) announced the change in 2009 in a bid to boost the sport's profile among viewers and sponsors.
Doubles specialist and Indian glamour girl Jwala Gutta, who has always played in skirts, said the new dress code might help to raise interest but players should not be forced to conform.

"You cannot make it compulsory for everyone to wear skirts. It depends on each individual and their comfortable level. I am not sure people will like being told what to wear and what not to," she said.
World number three Saina Nehwal, the top seed at the April 26-May 1 Indian Open, is one of the many players in India who prefers to wear shorts on court.

Gutta, who won the Commonwealth Games gold last year with her partner Ashwini Ponnapa, endorsed efforts to make the sport more glamorous.
She said that interest in tennis was greater partly because of the attraction of female stars such as Maria Sharapova or the Williams sisters, whose on-court outfits are often as remarked about as their game.
India's top female tennis player Sania Mirza came under fire from Muslim clerics four years back for wearing short skirts on court.
"Anything that helps makes the sport attractive should be welcomed," said the 27-year-old Gutta, whose eye-catching looks and daring dress sense on and off court have won her a loyal following at home.
"But instead of enforcing rules on players, the federation should ask sponsors to come up with innovative dresses.
"You can add a lot of colour, experiment with styling and stuff like that. That way it will ensure players' comfort and take care of the glamour aspect as well."

Another Indian player, who asked not to be named, said she was uncomfortable with the new ruling.

"I wear skirts or dresses only on special occasions, but never in tournaments," she said. "Skirts hamper my movement when I play."
Despite rapid modernisation, India remains a generally conservative country where public displays of sexuality are taboo and women are expected to dress modestly.

Source: http://muslimwomeninsports.blogspot....se-unease.html

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingn...s-cause-unease


While this affects all women, I think this ruling is both xenophobic and sexist. We need to stop sexualizing women's sports. In a way I wonder how the increased number of Muslim female athletes will affect this sexualization trend. Hopefully it will affect things for the better, so that people stop paying attention to how female athletes look, and pay attention to how they play instead. It would be interesting to see the body modesty of Islamic culture have an effect the sports world, and maybe there won't be such a huge difference between female and male uniforms in the future.