Just adding fuel to this fire.

[kurlypink]

Judo Manitoba refused to allow Muslim girl to compete for wearing hijab

By The Canadian Press

WINNIPEG - A Judo Manitoba official reduced an 11-year-old girl to tears Saturday when he refused to allow her to compete in a tournament wearing a hijab, or Muslim head scarf.

While other children squared off in the match at a Winnipeg gym, Hagar Outbih

Comments

[purplelizzy]

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20071117/hijab_judo_071117/20071117?hub=TopStories

I found another article in which she is repeatedly referred to as a "little girl." If an 11 year old is a little girl why is she even wearing a hejab? I don't claim to be an expert on the Koran but my understanding has always been that covering starts at puberty. I suppose 11 is considered a bit borderline?

Having said that I am pretty sure women from various Muslim countries do wear some kind of hejab when competing internationally.

[lilisonna]

Eh. I'm of two minds here.

The first says that it's terrible that some judge reduced a child to tears. And it is.

The other says that wearing a headscarf during a judo competition is potentially dangerous and needs to be considered on a safety level. As a judge, I don't know that I would feel comfortable letting someone participate in judo with the headscarf on. I would hope that some sort of accommodation could be made that would satisfy both safety and free expression of faith, but I don't know enough about the tournament rules or the style of scarf worn.

There's less of a safety issue for Tae Kwan Do tournaments, and I don't see it at all for soccer. Certainly this points to a need for these organizations to consider and address this issue so that judges don't have to make such calls on the fly.

[kurlypink]

I agree with this. Even in soccer, it is dangerous for women to wear any headgear. In California, the only thing they're allowed to wear in their hair is an elastic.

I agree that there must be some kind of headgear that the girls can wear that is safe while competing.

Now, there is a Muslim school on my route to work everyday and we see girls wearing the full head/face covering and it is obvious by their body language/height, that they are about 14ish. What age do they start covering completely?

I've seen babies wearing hejab's in my neighbourhood (high Muslim population)

[purplelizzy]

In principle, I agree, religous symobilism has no place on the sports field. However the precedent has already been set by allowing sikh men to wear turbans during various sports, thus this safety ruling would seem to impact negatively more on woman than men. I could only find one report of a male in a similar situation ... it dates back to 1997 when a sikh boy was sent off a soccer pitch in New Jersey because he refused to remove his turban. However it was later decided he could wear it. I think I have also seen international cricketers wearing turbans. Now, why is that ok but not a hejab?

[kurlypink]

We knew a Sikh cyclist in SoCal. He had a special thing he wore when he rode. He said there is no reason for the full turban because he could not fit it under a helmet! It would be the same for other sports. The men wore the special skull cap.

He also explained about the khirpan (sp?), the ceremonial sword they are supposed to wear. Where I am from in Canada, there is a huge Sikh population and they made a huge stink about allowing the boys to wear the 12 inch sword to school. Now that is ridiculous in anyone's esteem but Hari (cyclist) said that it is only symbolic. He wore a small (1 inch) khirpan around his neck. There should never be the real thing. Ever.

I just have a real issue with cultural groups wielding their religious ecoutrements as political weapons.

But for Cricket, considering that the players barely get their whites dirty, I don't think a turban would be an issue!

[dancing_moon]

Didn't someone post, here or on feminist, about sports-apropriate veils? They reminded me a bit of fencing gear only without the mask.

Anyway. I think that sports organisations, workplaces, unions etc etc need to start and think issues like these through - preferably before an individual is hurt and needs to experience discrimination. In everything but competetive hairdressing, the hair isn't the focus so it should be no problem to design safetyguidelines that ought to work with many (though probably not all) religious rules about covering.

[dancing_moon]

Hey look, I found a site with sport hijabs.

[kurlypink]

I think the wearers of these headgear should be thinking of appropriate headgear for the kind of activities they will be performing.

In Canada at my kids' school, there were a lot of muslim girls who wore hijabs. And they played soccer. But many of them spent more time messing with their hijabs, i.e. keeping them on while they played) than actually playing. If they had an appropriate hijab, then it wouldn't have been an issue.

[purplelizzy]

I think you were joking about the hairdressing, but that has reminded me of another story that was in the UK news recently. See next post.