MUSLIM HATE OF WOMEN ATHLETES
Ex-Afghanistan
women’s captain tells footballers: burn kits and delete photos
Cycling
federation and others echo Khalida Popal’s call for precautions as country falls under Taliban
rule
August 19,2021
Reuters
High-profile
sportswomen in Afghanistan have been
urged to wipe their social media presence and in some cases burn their kit as
supporters scramble to protect them from the Taliban.
Speaking from
Copenhagen, Khalida Popal, the former captain of the
Afghanistan women’s football team, said female players should take urgent steps
to remove all trace of their sporting history.
“Today I’m
calling them and telling them, take down their names, remove their identities,
take down their photos for their safety. Even I’m telling them to burn down or
get rid of your national team uniform,” she told Reuters.
“And that is painful
for me, for someone as an activist who stood up and did everything possible to
achieve and earn that identity as a women’s national team player. To earn that
badge on the chest, to have the right to play and represent our country, how
much we were proud.”
A source close
to the country’s cycling federation echoed the advice, saying female members
had been told to stay at home and avoid posting on social media at all cost.
“At the moment
[they are] safe but it is my expectation that within some months, like one or
two months, I’m sure that nobody can guarantee their life. These are real
dangers,” the source said. “The freedoms they had to ride a bike will be
impossible … They are shocked and they are afraid.”
The speed with
which the Taliban had taken over
control of Afghanistan had eliminated any chance the women might have had to
flee, the source added. “Everything changed in 48 hours. Nobody was able to
escape. If it [had been] a week or something, we would have sent them to neighbouring countries but it all happened on the same day,
the airport is closed, everywhere you see terrorists with guns.”
The worries
came as some members of a girls’ robotics team – Afghanistan’s first – arrived
in Qatar after leaving Kabul on a commercial flight, according to a statement
on Wednesday by the team’s founder, the Afghan tech entrepreneur Roya Mahboob.
Known as the Afghan Dreamers, the team
from Herat in western Afghanistan range in age from 12 to 18. Last year, amid
the Covid-19 pandemic, they built a prototype for a ventilator with used car
parts.
Mahboob said
that while some of the girls had gone to Qatar to continue their education,
other members had stayed in Afghanistan. “The Taliban have promised to allow
girls to be educated to whatever extent allowed by Sharia law,” she told the
New York Times. “We will have to wait and see to what that means.”
When the
Taliban were in power between 1996 and 2001, women were not allowed to work and
girls were barred from going to school, let alone playing sport. Women had to wear burqas to go out, and
then only when escorted by a male relative.
Popal said the footballers she had spoken to were
“so afraid. They are worried, they are scared, not only the players, but also
the activists ... they have nobody to go to, to seek protection, to ask for
help if they are in danger. They are afraid that any time the door will be
knocked.”
Female
cyclists, who have faced physical attacks and verbal slurs even in more recent
years, spoke to the Guardian last month about their fears that a Taliban
takeover would force them off their bikes for good.
“I really pray
for the country to be a safe place for a woman like us, especially [for us to
be able] to ride bikes on the streets,” said one. “But I’m quite sure that the
Taliban groups, the [Islamic State] and all of them, will never allow women to
even study, to work, to have a job. So how is it possible they will let us do
biking? I’m quite sure that they will never allow us; they will just shoot us.”
A spokesperson
for Fifa said the world football body shared “concern
and sympathy with all those affected by the evolving situation. We are in
contact with the Afghanistan football federation, and other stakeholders, and
will continue to monitor the local situation and to offer our support in the
weeks and months to come.”
Ethiopian Woman Using Soccer to Challenge
Girls'
Cultural Roles
By PAUL MEYER, The Dallas Morning News
PLANO - Anisa Adem's
daughters asked a simple question with no easy answer. It hung in the air,
searching for the place where culture, gender and religion meet. "Why
can't girls play soccer here?" they asked. "Is it the Ethiopian
culture or Muslim culture?"
The family was in Maryland, watching the 2002
Ethiopian national soccer tournament. And for Ms. Adem,
a first-generation immigrant and Muslim mother of two, her daughters' question
became a woman's mission. She wanted girls to play at the 2003 tournament in
Houston. And she wanted more.
Returning home to Plano, Ms. Adem set to work. By September, she had incorporated the Roba Ethiopian-American Girls Association, a nonprofit
group encouraging Ethiopian-American girls to participate in sports, science
and leadership activities. The association is named after Fatuma Roba, Africa's first woman to win an Olympic marathon.
Ms. Adem said her
daughters' original question shocked her. "They were observing the
cultural difference," she said. "In Ethiopia, many girls barely
finish high school. I want to teach the ones who are here that your nationality
or religion shouldn't limit you."
The community response, she says, has been
mostly positive, including offers to help with a web site and calendar to sell
as a fund-raiser. Both were launched last week.
"When they see a moderate [Muslim] woman,
some are against it," she said. "It's always the man who can do
everything. But why did you come to America then if you think that?"
Roba isn't Ms. Adem's first foray into community affairs. Four years ago,
she founded the Ewket Ethiopian School, an
organization for children that meets every Sunday at Plano's Douglass Community
Center to study the Ethiopian language and traditions.
She's also active among local multicultural
civic groups. "If she brings the same enthusiasm to the school as she does
to other things, she'll get the job done," said Plano Mayor Pat Evans.
Ample audience
About 4,700 people of Ethiopian descent live in
the Dallas metro area, according to the most recent Census data. Statewide,
there are about 6,400. As in Ethiopia, the group is divided between Orthodox
Christians and Muslims.
Minassie Beyene,
a leader in Garland's St. Michael Ethiopian Orthodox Church, was one of the
first to come here in the 1970s. "I do see a need for women, especially
for girls, to have something to look up to," Mr. Beyene
said of Ms. Adem's efforts. "Women are kind of
left behind in most things in Ethiopia, although here they're equals."
Mr. Beyene's son, a
graduate student at Stanford University, is president of the Ethiopian Student
Association of Texas. Soon, he plans to work with Ms. Adem
to provide scholarships to Ethiopian girls and boys.
"In the culture, women are expected to
take care of home first. Since we're still in the early generations of the
community here, those thoughts and expectations still reside," Nahom Minassie Beyene said. Ms. Adem "can
provide the resources to this community and provide an example for other
communities."
Houston exhibition
As for soccer, the girls got their chance this
summer in Houston. At the national tournament that draws tens of thousands of
Ethiopians from America and beyond, the Fatuma Roba girls soccer team traveled from Dallas to play a one-game
exhibition in July.
A team of Houston boys opposed them. They tied.
But even the sentimental victory was tempered by a dose of reality. About half
the team dropped out just days before the tournament, not wanting to wear
shorts at a public event, a prohibition for conservative Muslims.
"If you're Muslim, it's very tough,"
Ms. Adem said. "I want to motivate girls to
realize that anything is possible. I want to encourage them to go to college in
the sciences, the arts and sports. And I want them to network with other
Ethiopians back home."
Next year in Seattle, she plans to try to field
another girls team to compete. "Soccer isn't meant for girls back
home," Minassie Beyene
said . "It's like American football. You don't
see girls' teams. But we were for it. If they want to, they deserve to
play."
Women, sport and culture
Basil Ince
Friday, September 30th 2005
There she was, scurrying around the
court, now unleashing a terrific backhand, then a running forehand hitting the
sidelines. The point completed, she tucked the ball in her pocket and headed
for the baseline to serve. Pleasant but all business, she was going about her job
just as other professional players do on the big-time tennis circuit. I
blinked. She was Indian. "So what,'' a friend
would say, "haven't you ever seen an Indian woman play tennis yet?'' He
was correct yet missing the point. There are thousands of Indian women around
the world who play tennis but this was the fourth round of the US Open, one of
the prestigious grand slams on the tennis circuit.
She was Sania Mirza, a 5' 7" 18-year old Muslim, born in Mumbai, India, now living in
Hyderabad. What's special about her is that she was not only the first Indian
woman to reach the fourth round of a grand slam but also the first to be ranked
that high in tennis, 35th in the world. The highest before was 134th. That's
nothing to scoff at in the world of top class tennis.
No player from this country, man or woman, has ever appeared on the radar of
world ranked tennis players much less to be ranked 35th. Should any top ten
player be off on a given day, number 35 could score an upset. She has become a
celebrity in India. Not as big as Sachin Tendulkar of
whom she is a fan but big enough to be mentioned in the same breath as the
cricketing giant. She is humbled by this.
But guess what happened on her
return home in addition to the pride and adulation she received from Indian
sports lovers? A Muslim cleric in Hyderabad issued a fatwa against her, and
another Islamic group warned that it will prevent her from playing in an
upcoming tournament. Her sin, in their eyes, is that she does not wear the
"proper clothes''. They view her short skirts, shorts, and sleeveless
shirts as "un-Islamic''. That outfit was a no-no as far as that group was
concerned. The group was worried that Mirza would become a role model for
younger generations of Muslim girls. Opined its leader, "She will
undoubtedly be a corrupting influence on these young women, which we want to
prevent.'' Now mind you, Mirza dresses just as the other players do. In fact,
Adidas provides her clothing.
However, the tide was with Mirza.
On the very next day, top Muslim clerics, who arbitrate over religion-related
issues for the more than 160 million Muslims living in India, came to Mirza's defence. Their view: "What Sania wears in (the) tennis
court is the demand of the game.'' They derided the fatwa-dispensing group as
trying to gain "cheap publicity''.
Let's face it, women have been
disadvantaged from the outset in big- time sporting competition. In earlier
times it was the gender issue which debarred them from participating in the
ancient Olympic Games. They were not allowed to compete and could enter the
stadium only to applaud the competitors politely.
They were absent at the first
modern Olympics in 1896 and when they participated at the next Games, they were
limited to games such as croquet and tennis. In fact, four years later, the
American Olympic Committee came out against women taking part in any activity
in which they could not wear long skirts. The manners and mores of the
Victorian times precluded and limited female participation.
Fast forward to 1984, 56 years
after women were allowed to compete in track events for the first time. Nawal
El Moutawakel, of Morocco, became the first woman from the Third World to win
gold at the Olympics. Her victory came 56 years after women from the industrialised world had raked in gold medals. She won the
premier edition of the 400m hurdles. On her heels in years to come were women
from Algeria, Ethiopia, and Kenya grabbing Olympic gold. After El Moutawakel's
triumph, she dedicated her victory " to the women of my country and all of
Africa''. She knew what she had endured in a conservative country where the
Muslim religion frowns on women not wearing the purdah, much less running
around a track in shorts.
The continents of Africa, Asia, and
South America have given the women from industrialised
countries a huge distance from which recovery is all but impossible. While
religion and custom restrained the women of North Africa, custom acted as a
virtual brake on African women south of the Sahara. The culture there dictated
that a woman should have a husband and when this was done
she "had children, did the housework (and) collected water and firewood''.
Asia was not much different.
The traditional way of life has
been a strong deterrent to the success of Asian women in sport. Machismo has no
doubt been a debilitating factor for Latin American women. It is only in the
Castro era that Cuban women have emerged.
And where do we in the English-speaking
Caribbean, with transplants predominantly from Asia and Africa, stand in
sporting events? Not bad at all. Jamaican women were finalists at the Olympic
Games as early as 1948.
In all major sporting events in the
world, gender has had a braking effect on women's progress. In the Third World,
culture provided an additional barrier. Culture, however, is dynamic as
evidenced by the number of Third World women winning Olympic gold and earning a
handsome living from professional sport.
Play on, Sania!
Sania Mirza
By Jason Cowley
Monday 17th October 2005
Jason Cowley on the tennis
sensation who is drawing scorn from india's muslim clerics
It is difficult to believe that a slender, 18-year-old Muslim tennis player
from India has the potential to change the world, but it is equally difficult
to overestimate the effect Sania Mirza is having on millions of young men and
women, and especially women, in the world's second most populous country. She
is the first female Indian tennis player to be ranked in the world's top 40;
indeed, she is the first significant female athlete of any kind, in a country
where women have been typically discouraged from taking up sport. Mirza has the
discipline, the tenacity, the flamboyance and, above all, the talent to go much
higher in the rankings and, in so doing, inspire a whole new generation of
Indian girls to express their hopes and ambitions through sport.
At home, in India, Mirza is a role model and an icon, her fame locating her
somewhere between Bollywood and the mass adulation that surrounds the Indian
cricket team. She is celebrated as much for her attitude and fashion sense (she
wears a nose-ring and "librarian" glasses) as she is for her talent.
She evidently enjoys the attention and delights in confounding expectations of
exactly how a young Muslim woman from the subcontinent should behave. At
Wimbledon, she wore a T-shirt bearing the slogan: "Well-behaved women
rarely make history"; at the US Open in September, where she lost in the
quarter-final to the Russian sensation Maria Sharapova, her T-shirt read:
"You can either agree with me, or be wrong".
All this means that Mirza is in ceaseless demand - for interviews, billboard
advertising, endorsements (her fee is reported to be second only to the great
batsman Sachin Tendulkar's) and television
appearances. But already she is becoming something of a prisoner of her own
celebrity in a rapidly modernising country of more
than a billion people. She can no longer even leave the Hyderabad home she
shares with her parents without the obligatory bodyguards.
There are other threats, too. Some Muslim groups have begun to omplain about the "indecent" short skirts and
skimpy tops that she wears on court. One Muslim cleric, Hasheeb-ul-Hassan
Siddiqui, of the Sunni Ulema Board, has even issued a fatwa against Mirza,
stipulating that she be prevented from playing in sleeveless tops and short
skirts. Her tennis clothes, he said, as well as those she wears for
advertisements, "leave nothing to the imagination". For an entire generation
of young Muslim girls, she "would be undoubtedly a corrupting
influence".
The cleric is correct in identifying the world-transforming potential of a
young, attractive, articulate and media-smart teenage Muslim tennis star, but
wrong in his assessment of that influence. He understands how sport has become
a common language for the global tribe, as well as an engine of change, an
aggressive symbol of meritocracy and the mirror in which we see reflected back
at us the competitive, style-driven, money- and celebrity-fixated world in
which we live. Tennis is one of the few sports in which women enjoy parity with
men; female tennis players are among the wealthiest and most celebrated of all
sports personalities.
Though sport is increasingly an expression of capitalist hegemony, it can also
be subversive, destabilising hierarchies and helping
to liberate many in the developing world from a life of penury and
subordination. Muhammad Ali, Pele, the Aboriginal tennis player Evonne
Goolagong, the West Indian cricketer Viv Richards, the so-called ghetto Cinderellas Venus and Serena Williams and the Chinese
basketball star Yao Ming - these sporting icons, because of their fame,
achievement and corporate power, have helped to transform the way mainstream
sporting audiences think about race, gender and the old political structures
that once controlled the games we play.
Can Mirza have a similarly transformative effect, not only in India but also
throughout the world? She may not have won a major tournament, yet already she
occupies a role through which flow many of the most significant intellectual
and cultural currents of our times: the clash between secularism and political
Islam, the emancipation of women in the Muslim world, the dominance of
celebrity, the tyranny of the image, the emergence of India as a world power.
"Every word I speak, every skirt I wear, is discussed and analysed," she complained, on a recent return to India
from the United States. If she continues to improve as rapidly as she has over
the past six months, Sania Mirza will simply have to get used to such obsessive
scrutiny. There is no turning back now.