Islamic Rules Kick 12 Year Old Female Player Out of Chess Tournament

Are you effing kidding me?  Nope - it really happened.  Other news outlets have reported on the event, which happened at the National Scholastic Chess Championship of 2017 held April 14, 2017 at Putrajaya.   Here's the scoop from The Washington Post:

‘We are disgusted’: Youth chess coach says student kicked out of tournament for ‘seductive’ dress

Marissa Payne, April 29, 2917



Quoted from the Facebook post (includes photo above):

DEAR MALAYSIAN CHESS COMMUNITY,

I heard the most disturbing incident from one of my student’s mother.

At the National Scholastic Chess Championship 2017, in Putrajaya, one of my student, who is a 12-YEAR-OLD GIRL felt harassed and humiliated by the actions of Tournament Director and Chief Arbiter.

In the middle of Round 2, (without stopping the clocks) Chief Arbiter informs my student that the dress she wore was improper and have violated the dress code of the tournament. It was later informed (by Chief Arbiter) to my student and her mother, that the Tournament Director deemed my student’s dress to be “seductive” and a “temptation from a certain angle far, far away”.
We found this statement completely out of line!

Please see attached photo of what she was wearing! Completely ridiculous!

After some discussion, Chief Arbiter had conceded and apologised to my student, personally assuring her that there was nothing wrong with her attire, but due to Tournament Director’s decision, he could not allow this dress to be worn by my student in the tournament. This discussion happened at around 10pm and Chief Arbiter gave them a choice to go to the mall nearby to buy a long slack for the next day 9.00am round. Due to the timing of this incident, it was impossible to get another attire in time for the 9.00am round next day, as all shops were already closed and wouldn’t be open in time.

Before the morning round next day, my student’s mother called Tournament Director regarding this matter, initially he had replied that he was not aware of the situation but after a brief discussion, it was realized that he knew all the details on this incident prior to this phone call. He promised to return the call upon discussion with Chief Arbiter, but this did not happen. He would further not answer or return any calls of my student’s mother.

This situation had led to the inevitable decision of withdrawal from the tournament all together.

We are absolutely DIGUSTED by the treatment of Tournament Director to a 12-year-old girl and her mother. This incident has resulted in loss of time and money which was invested before, during and after the tournament on coaching, registration fees, travelling, accommodation and other incurred cost.

This bright young girl was recently the champion of her district in MSS Kuala Lumpur and has shown tremendous potential in Chess. This incident has left her extremely disturbed, and embarrassed.

I have been playing chess in Malaysia for almost 2 decades and I have never heard this type of issue ever in any tournaments in Malaysia. This should be the first and last time this kind of issue ever appears, I or anyone of us should never accept this in our Chess Community.

We demand a public apology from Tournament Director of National Scholastic Chess Championship 2017. In the event, we do not receive a public apology in the next 5 days, we shall have no choice but to resort to legal proceedings.

Regards,
Kaushal Khandhar
A Malaysian Chess Player & Coach

Article:

A 12 year-old chess champion in Malaysia was forced to withdraw from a youth tournament in the country after tournament organizers deemed her knee-length dress too “seductive,” the girl’s coach said.

The tournament director of the National Scholastic Chess Championship held April 14-16 made the call personally, the coach noted, after finding the dress to be “temptation."

"We found this statement completely out of line!” youth chess coach Kaushal Khandhar wrote on Facebook.

He said the incident left his student feeling “extremely disturbed, and embarrassed."

Dress codes in chess are not unusual, as FIDE, world chess’s governing body, allows tournament organizers to set them before their events to ensure participants maintain a “dignified appearance.” In certain Muslim-majority countries, such as Iran, organizers may require female participants to follow local customs, including covering their hair with headscarves.

Malaysian women, however, do not face the same restrictions, and skirts or shorts that extend to the knee are commonly worn in public spaces.

"I have been playing chess in Malaysia for almost two decades and I have never heard this type of issue ever in any tournaments in Malaysia,” Khandhar added.

Making matters worse, the coach said, was the timing of the incident. The girl apparently was able to play in the dress without incident in the first round of the tournament but was pulled aside in the middle of the second round Thursday and told her attire didn’t conform with the dress code.

Khandhar said tournament organizers gave the girl the option to go purchase a pair of slacks and return to the event the next day, however, Khandhar said by the time that offer was made it was past 10 p.m., and all the shops had closed. They would not open again in time to meet the next day’s call time of 9 a.m., meaning the girl had no choice but to withdraw.

"We are absolutely DISGUSTED by the treatment of Tournament Director to a 12-year-old girl and her mother,” Khandhar continued. “This incident has resulted in loss of time and money which was invested before, during and after the tournament on coaching, registration fees, traveling, accommodation and other incurred costs."

Khandhar said the girl and her family are hoping for a public apology.

The unnamed tournament director has not commented on the allegations specifically, but told the Malay Mail Online on Friday that the would be lodging a police report.  [What?  A police report - for what?  And who, exactly, is allegedly going to be or has already filed this 'police report?'  The word typed in the article is "THE would be lodging a police report."  Is this supposed to be HE - or THEY? And if it is THEY, who is THEY, specifically?]

Meanwhile, the Malaysian Chess Federation told the paper an investigation of the incident is underway. A spokesman for the governing body said it had already reached out to the girl’s mother, whose statement on the incident did not exactly match the coach’s.

"The claim [Khandhar] posted is different from the official complaint [from the mother],” the MCF told the Malay Mail Online, noting it could not comment further due to legal concerns. “We will take action once the report comes out."  [How is Khandhar's claim different?  Why hasn't anyone asked?  What does this mean - we will take action once the report comes out?  What report - their OWN 'investigation?'  A police investigation?  And what do the police have to do with something like this in the first place?  NONE OF THIS MAKES ANY SENSE!]

WTF?  There's more - DISGUSTING...

I Am SICK OF SPOILED ROTTEN DUDES Getting Their Way

From The New York Times

She Was Asked to Switch Seats. Now She’s Charging El Al With Sexism.

The Saturday Profile

By ISABEL KERSHNER FEB. 26, 201

JERUSALEM — Renee Rabinowitz is a sharp-witted retired lawyer with a Ph.D. in educational psychology, who escaped the Nazis in Europe as a child. Now she is about to become a test case in the battle over religion and gender in’s public spaces — and the skies above — as the plaintiff in a lawsuit accusing El Al, the national airline, of discrimination.

Ms. Rabinowitz was comfortably settled into her aisle seat in the business-class section on El Al Flight 028 from Newark to Tel Aviv in December when, as she put it, “this rather distinguished-looking man in Hasidic or Haredi garb, I’d guess around 50 or so, shows up.”

The man was assigned the window seat in her row. But, like many ultra-Orthodox male passengers, he did not want to sit next to a woman, seeing even inadvertent contact with the opposite sex as verboten under the strictest interpretation of Jewish law. Soon, Ms. Rabinowitz said, a flight attendant offered her a “better” seat, up front, closer to first class.

Reluctantly, Ms. Rabinowitz, an impeccably groomed grandmother of 81 who walks with a cane because of bad knees, agreed. ”Despite all my accomplishments — and my age is also an accomplishment — I felt minimized,” she recalled in a recent interview in her elegantly appointed apartment in a fashionable neighborhood of Jerusalem.

“For me this is not personal,” Ms. Rabinowitz added. “It is intellectual, ideological and legal. I think to myself, here I am, an older woman, educated, I’ve been around the world, and some guy can decide that I shouldn’t sit next to him. Why?”

That is just what many feminists and advocates of religious pluralism in Israel and abroad have been asking in what by all accounts is a growing phenomenon of religious Jewish men refusing to sit next to women on airplanes. Several flights from New York to Israel, on El Al and other airlines, have been delayed or disrupted as women refused to move, and there have been social media campaigns including a protest petition.

The More Things Seem to Change, the More They Stay the Same...

...don't you think it's strange.  Girl, put your records on, play me your favorite song, your gonna find yourself someday...  Corinne Bailey Rae

I assume in honor of International Women's Day a week or two ago, there have been several articles cropping up recently about women - both ancient and modern. I know I run the risk of each of these articles not getting the attention each deserves by grouping them together this evening - but these two seem to fit together, so here goes:

On the streets of Alexandria, Egypt, a mob led by Peter the Lector brutally murdered Hypatia, one of the last great thinkers of ancient Alexandria.
Mary Evans Picture Library / Alamy
History & Archaeology
Hypatia, Ancient Alexandria’s Great Female Scholar
An avowed paganist in a time of religious strife, Hypatia was also one of the first women to study math, astronomy and philosophy
By Sarah Zielinski
Smithsonian.com, March 15, 2010
I will not go into detail about the horrific way that Hypatia was killed by a mob of men incited by a so-called Christian. Suffice to say that in our collective memories of her great accomplishments, she has achieved eternal life and glory.

From The New York Times
Bias Called Persistent Hurdle for Women in Sciences
By TAMAR LEWIN
Published: March 21, 2010
A report on the underrepresentation of women in science and math by the American Association of University Women, to be released Monday, found that although women have made gains, stereotypes and cultural biases still impede their success.  . . .

Five years ago, Lawrence H. Summers, then the president of Harvard, sparked a firestorm when he suggested that “there are issues of intrinsic aptitude, and particularly of the variability of aptitude” reinforced by “lesser factors involving socialization and continuing discrimination.”  . . .

The association’s report acknowledges differences in male and female brains. But Ms. Hill said, “None of the research convincingly links those differences to specific skills, so we don’t know what they mean in terms of mathematical abilities.”

At the top level of math abilities, where boys are overrepresented, the report found that the gender gap is rapidly shrinking. Among mathematically precocious youth — sixth and seventh graders who score more than 700 on the math SAT — 30 years ago boys outnumbered girls 13 to 1, but only about 3 to 1 now.

“That’s not biology at play, it doesn’t change so fast,” Ms. Hill said. “Even if there are biological factors in boys outnumbering girls, they’re clearly not the whole story. There’s a real danger in assuming that innate differences are important in determining who will succeed, so we looked at the cultural factors, to see what evidence there is on the nurture side of nature or nurture.”

The report found ample evidence of continuing cultural bias. . . .

More tomorrow night.  Right now, I've got to put my records on and do some serious boogeying for aerobic fitness, muscle toning and (hopefully) weight loss.  Found two new favorites to add to my mix:  Praful ("Sigh") and Spencer Day ("You'll Come Back to Me").

NO WOMEN ALLOWED

Gag. Here's a story with the usual crapola about no women allowed for the past 1,000 years because it is alleged by Orthodox Christian male monks that the presence of females, including female animals (except for cats, who are good "ratters") "slows" the male along the path to spiritual enlightenment. Geez, guys, after 1,000 years you still haven't learned how to keep it in your pants? Your mothers are saying shame SHAME on you and making the shame-on-you sign of the cross at you with their fingers. Story at the independent.co.uk After 1,000 years, women can see treasures of Mount Athos By Thomas Inprocter in Paris Wednesday, 6 May 2009 For the first time in almost 1,000 years, many of the legendary Byzantine treasures of Mount Athos in Greece are on view to women. Almost 200 works of art from the male-only Orthodox enclave in northern Greece are on show at the Petit Palais in Paris until July. Most of the works have never previously left the peninsula, from which women – and even most female animals – have been banned since 1045. The 20 monasteries of Mount Athos house one of the largest collections of Christian art in the world. Direct access to these treasures is notoriously difficult to obtain for men, and impossible for women. But Paris has been granted the privilege of hosting this "world premiere", largely as a result of France's presidency of the EU last year. The Greek Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dora Bakoyannis, described the exhibition as a "cultural event of the first order". "The treasures exhibited here are a part of European culture," Ms Bakoyannis said. "A large number of these relics are going 'beyond the walls' of Mount Athos for public viewing for the first time by men and women." Previously, only two very small exhibitions have been held of Mount Athos artefacts, both in Greece. The director of the Petit Palais, Gilles Chazal, said: "The monks of Mount Athos have been very enthusiastic in their support of this project." He added that the exhibition would be "hugely significant". The original decree banning women, and female animals (except cats, which help control the rat population), from the enclave was issued by the Byzantine emperor Constantine Monomachos in 1045. Under Greek law, a breach of the ban by a woman can still lead to a jail sentence. The ban on female animals is enforced as strictly as possible. The monks maintain that the presence of women slows their path towards spiritual enlightenment. Particularly spectacular are the displays of imperial gifts which include "one of the most remarkable objects of metalwork of the Byzantine world": a chalice belonging to Manuel Cantacuzène (1349-1380), the son of Emperor Jean VI Cantacuzène, made from a single piece of jasper and most likely of Venetian origin. The exhibition will remain at the Petit Palais until 5 July.

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I think this comment from the newspaper website says it all: italori wrote: Thursday, 7 May 2009 at 09:41 am (UTC) -"The monks of Mount Athos have been very enthusiastic in their support of this project." - I am sure 100% that their "enthusiasm" depends on the money they are going to profit from this exhibition!!!-"the presence of women slows their path towards spiritual enlightenment"- ? Do I go to prison even if I take a BURKA with me? Just an example of how 51% of today's world population continues to be treated by the minority. It doesn't make any difference what religion it is - the patriarchal poison spewing froth remains the same. Such fear and loathing by males of the feminine. How sad.

Israeli Newspaper Edits Out Women Cabinet Members

Story from Middle East Online First Published 2009-04-05, Last Updated 2009-04-06 08:31:23 Image from the story: top photo is the "before", bottom photo is "after" editing to remove the two women. Israeli newspapers edit out women in Cabinet photo Newspapers aimed at ultra-Orthodox Jewish readers tamper with inaugural photograph of Israeli Cabinet. JERUSALEM – Two women serve in Israel's new Cabinet, but some Israelis would rather not see them. Newspapers aimed at ultra-Orthodox Jewish readers tampered with the inaugural photograph of the Cabinet, erasing ministers Limor Livnat and Sofa Landver. Ultra-Orthodox newspapers consider it immodest to print images of women. The daily Yated Neeman digitally changed the photo, moving two male ministers into the places formerly occupied by the women. The weekly Shaa Tova simply blacked the women out, in a photo reprinted Friday by the mainstream daily Maariv. No response was available from the two papers. During the election, campaign posters featuring female candidate Tzipi Livni were defaced near ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods. (AP)

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Absolutely disgusting. This is no different than the treatment of females by the Taliban. They worship the same god, just by a different name. The denigration of women by both sects is the same. We won't see this on the 6 PM news in the states, and that's disgusting, too. Why can't we see the truth of radicalism on both sides of the equation in the Middle East on prime time news coverage in the USA? This treatment of women is TOTALLY ABHORRENT to the norms of a modern secular society.