Something pretty awesome happened last week.
A US student called Samah Aidah was trying to play in a soccer team for Overland High School in Aurora, Colorado.
We say ‘trying’, as one of the referees decided she should not be able to play with the rest of the team.
The reason? Was Samah’s religion and her desire to wear a hijab while playing. (This happened despite FIFA recently lifting its ban on players being able to wear headscarves while playing soccer.)
Obviously, this is not the awesome part of the story. This is the sad, regressive part of the story.
Luckily, her team-mates weren’t willing to sit by and watch their team-mate get excluded from the game.
So they did this.
Well played team, well played.
And the good news is that since the image was shared, the girls were given permission to the following game wearing the hijabs.
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I would say the "sad, regressive, part of the story"" is that young girls and women are being told by their religion to cover up so as not to tempt men to sin(and the women are doing so), instead of men being held accountable for their own actions. Mamamia holds the line that women are never to blame for being sexually assaulted regardless of what they wear, but then supports muslim women being covered up
I don't think we can generalize the reason why people wear the the clothes of their choice.
That's quite a generalisation. There are also many young Muslim girls and women who 'cover up' of their own volition, for their own personal spiritual/religious reasons - nothing to do with men, but rather because of their faith. Have you spoken to any of these girls and women? I have, and I'm sure they appreciate the support in being able to maintain their choice.
I disagree. There is enormous societal and family pressures on young Muslim women to cover their hair. It used to be uncommon for Muslim women in Egypt to cover their hair. With the rise of Islamic fundamentalism it is now uncommon to see women with their hair uncovered. Women who dare to go out uncovered face both physical and verbal abuse. I have been called a whore, bitch, slut, because my hair was uncovered when I went shopping in Riyadh. I was wearing an abaya when these incidents occurred - and I am not even Muslim. Nowhere in the Koran does it state women should cover their hair, rather they should 'cover their breasts'. Why are rules regarding modesty only applicable to women? Muslim men don't cover their hair, but wear shorts, speedo bathers and enjoy the right to dress pretty much as they choose. I quite agree with Cat's arguments. I believe it is one of the greatest failings of feminism that it fails to tackle the oppression of Muslim women.
While the girls are pictured wearing scarf-style hijabs, the lycra pullover style hijabs would not pose a choking hazard, I would think...
I agree with you guest that a lycra hijab would be safer, but how about we consider why a young girl is compelled to preserve her "modesty"" whilst playing sport with other girls?