Mon Jun 06 03:51pm EDT From Yahoo's Fourth Place Medal Sports Blog
Iranian women’s soccer team forfeits 2012 qualifier over head scarves
By Brooks Peck
The Iranian women's soccer team was in tears after being forced to forfeit a 2012 London Olympics qualifying match this past weekend because it showed up to play in hajibs. FIFA banned the Islamic head scarf in 2007, saying that it could cause choking injuries -- the same reason it gave for recently banning snoods (neck warmers). FIFA also has strict rules against any religious statements in team uniforms.
Since Iran refused to comply with these rules and didn't use the specially designed caps that its 2010 Youth Olympics team wore, Friday's match was abandoned by officials and a 3-0 win was awarded to Jordan as a result. The Football Federation of Iran said it will complain to FIFA about the ruling, but FIFA says assurances were made beforehand so that this situation would've been avoided. From the AP:
"Despite initial assurances that the Iranian delegation understood this, the players came out wearing the hijab, and the head and neck totally covered, which was an infringement of the laws of the game," FIFA said in a statement. [...]
Jordan team officials also objected to the hijab rule before the game, but prepared to play by declining to select women who objected on religious grounds.
"The Iranian team and three Jordanian players were also banned from playing because they wore the traditional head cover," Rana Husseini, head of Jordan's women's football committee, told The Associated Press.
"The problem is that the head cover assigned and approved by FIFA for women players to wear does not suit them as it reveals part of the neck and this is not allowed and it is not acceptable," she said.
Iran also forfeited a second group match against Vietnam on Sunday, seriously damaging its chances of advancing to the London Olympics. It seems unlikely that its federation's complaints will help its case, though, since these rules are not new and compromises have been made in the past. It's just a shame these women were put in the middle of this debate between Iran's federation and FIFA and set up for disappointment.
All you politicians who play with peoples' lives for your "values" and "beliefs" - you SUCK. Of course, who cares about a few crying women whose dreams have been shattered because of POLITICS?
Iranian women’s soccer team forfeits 2012 qualifier over head scarves
By Brooks Peck
The Iranian women's soccer team was in tears after being forced to forfeit a 2012 London Olympics qualifying match this past weekend because it showed up to play in hajibs. FIFA banned the Islamic head scarf in 2007, saying that it could cause choking injuries -- the same reason it gave for recently banning snoods (neck warmers). FIFA also has strict rules against any religious statements in team uniforms.
Since Iran refused to comply with these rules and didn't use the specially designed caps that its 2010 Youth Olympics team wore, Friday's match was abandoned by officials and a 3-0 win was awarded to Jordan as a result. The Football Federation of Iran said it will complain to FIFA about the ruling, but FIFA says assurances were made beforehand so that this situation would've been avoided. From the AP:
"Despite initial assurances that the Iranian delegation understood this, the players came out wearing the hijab, and the head and neck totally covered, which was an infringement of the laws of the game," FIFA said in a statement. [...]
Jordan team officials also objected to the hijab rule before the game, but prepared to play by declining to select women who objected on religious grounds.
"The Iranian team and three Jordanian players were also banned from playing because they wore the traditional head cover," Rana Husseini, head of Jordan's women's football committee, told The Associated Press.
"The problem is that the head cover assigned and approved by FIFA for women players to wear does not suit them as it reveals part of the neck and this is not allowed and it is not acceptable," she said.
Iran also forfeited a second group match against Vietnam on Sunday, seriously damaging its chances of advancing to the London Olympics. It seems unlikely that its federation's complaints will help its case, though, since these rules are not new and compromises have been made in the past. It's just a shame these women were put in the middle of this debate between Iran's federation and FIFA and set up for disappointment.
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| Photo: Reuters. |
All you politicians who play with peoples' lives for your "values" and "beliefs" - you SUCK. Of course, who cares about a few crying women whose dreams have been shattered because of POLITICS?
1 comment:
Certainly I have comprehension that other religions impose equally ridiculous restrictions on females and males, too. For instance, the Roman Catholic Church, in which I grew up (but am no longer a part of), insisted that women wear head coverings because of a misogynistic statement made in the bible by Paul. But lo and behold, in the 1960's, that requirement, which served no useful purpose other than to demean women and make them into second class citizens in the eyes of the male parishioners, was dropped from cannon law after the Vatican Councils. Some sects of Jews require men to wear "side locks" and long beards which are not only unsightly they appear unsanitary, and also require women to wear head coverings. These sects also require segregation of the sexes in the synagogue. Basically, the same old discrimination inflicted against females by other religions as in current Islam. There is no scriptural basis in Islam for head coverings and the "modesty" premise for enforcing the rule is a non-starter because, as you pointed out, when women leave the country they can take the hijab off. But if the Iranian women's soccer team had done this, what would have happened to them when they went back home? And what would have happened to their families. I hope you are not so naive as to believe that they could act in such a way with impunity!
As for any woman willingly turning herself into a second-class citizen by wearing clothes imposed upon them by males - no, I do not comprehend that. They do it because they have little choice in the matter - because of the consequeces for refusing to "conform" to insane edicts from autocrats OR because they are brainwashed and conditioned from birth to do it. God help us all if men in Islam have so little self-control that they are inflamed with lust and lose their minds simply because women are walking around in front of them without head coverings!
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