Let Them Play Ball

 
If we want to coexist peacefully in today’s globalized, multi-cultural and multi-religious world, governments, international institutions and peoples must not stand in the way of young girls’ ambitions. We must see these promising girls for who they are, accept them as they are and, ultimately, let them play ball, says Souheila Al-Jadda.

 
Controversy has always been part of the sports world. But when it involves an 11 year-old Muslim girl, the controversy takes a different tone. In Canada, a young Muslim girl, Asmahan Mansour, was recently ejected from a soccer match because she refused to remove her Islamic headscarf or hijab. The referee said that her headscarf, a piece of fabric, posed a danger to other players.

These days, technical justifications are often used to mask discrimination against Muslims. Asmahan’s team and others boycotted the soccer league to protest the decision. I applaud these young athletes and teams for standing up for what’s right and defending the young girl’s right to practice her religion freely.

During my youth (not too long ago), I played all kinds of sports, including soccer, softball, basketball, volleyball, track and field, and tennis. Back then, I looked like everyone else. I did not wear the headscarf. I did wear shorts and tiny tennis skirts. No one cared that I was Muslim, whether I wore the scarf or not.

Back then, we lived in a pre-9/11 world. Today, I wear the hijab and can empathize with young, veiled girls who have to challenge and fight for their religious freedoms. Asmahan’s case made it to the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA), which upheld the referee’s decision to pull the girl out of the game for safety reasons. The association’s action or inaction implies that the international body would rather not have devout Muslim girls playing.

For entirely different reasons, France and other European countries have banned the headscarf in public schools. Even Muslim countries, including Turkey and Tunisia, have banned the headscarf in public institutions, fearing that such clothing, or the women underneath them, will incite extremism. Such extreme measures by governments and international organizations signal to Muslim girls and women worldwide that if they want to practice religion, they will have to give up other ambitions in life, including education and sports.

In America, there have been many incidents of discrimination against veiled Muslim women since 9/11, according to the Council on American Islamic Relations. A USA Today/Gallup Poll last year showed that Americans have strong anti-Muslim feelings. According to the poll, 39% felt at least some prejudice against Muslims. Despite all this, there are incidents of Muslim women being accepted into the sports world. In 2004, when University of Southern Florida basketball player, Andrea Johnson requested that the University allow her to wear the headscarf during games, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) issued an exemption to the uniform rules, allowing her to wear the scarf. Perhaps this exception should be made a rule.

Last year, a Bahraini woman, Ruqaya Al Ghasara, wearing a headscarf, won a gold medal in a 200 meters sprint race in the 15th Asian Games. Her win drew much media attention, but not for capturing the gold. Rather for the blazing red, Nike logo that decorated her white hijab. More American multinational sports companies, like Nike, are embracing Muslim women’s sportswear, and perhaps so should we.

“Wearing traditional Muslim dress has encouraged me. It’s not an obstacle - quite the opposite,” Al Ghasara told the Associated Press.

Interestingly, Al Ghasara says that her sports role model is American world champion sprinter, Marion Jones. Rather than wrangling about a piece of fabric worn on a girl’s head, communities should be more concerned about the real problems facing young women athletes, be they Muslim, Christian or any other religion. We should be concerned about the circumstances that allowed a California high school student to be allegedly raped by members of a baseball team.

We should worry about 19 year-old Heather Johnston, who was known as the ‘Barbie Bandit’ after robbing a bank in Georgia. We should be asking, ‘How did a straight-A student and agile tennis player with great potential turn into a bank robber?’

As a Muslim woman who enjoys playing all kinds of sports, I can identify with the young soccer player, Asmahan and her plight. If we want to coexist peacefully in today’s globalized, multi-cultural and multi-religious world, governments, international institutions and peoples must not stand in the way of young girls’ ambitions. We must see these promising girls for who they are, accept them as they are and, ultimately, let them play ball!

Souheila Al-Jadda is a commentator and associate producer of a Peabody award-winning program, Mosaic: World News from the Middle East, on Link TV.

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