Written by Don Byrd
As I posted earlier this month, Team USA fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad became the first American Olympian to compete wearing a hijab (She won a team bronze medal!). Her story continues to be an inspiring reminder of the contributions many people can make when not required to choose between their faith and their fields of excellence.
Even in athletics, seemingly needless restrictions continue to stand in the way of greater participation by adherents to certain faiths. In a piece written for Time Magazine’s Motto entitled “Hijabs are Not a Threat to Sports,” Zainab Chaudry and Simran Jeet Singh call for a change in international basketball regulations.
Here is an excerpt:
The International Basketball Federation (FIBA), the overarching association of national organizations governing international basketball competition, has a policy banning any headgear–including religious garments–wider than 5 centimeters. This provision automatically disqualifies Sikh and Muslim athletes who respectively wear turbans and hijabs as mandated by their faith. The federation says in its official rulebook that such items and accessories cannot be worn on the court because “they may cause injury to other players.”
The U.S. Olympic Committee and other advocates have reportedly asked FIBA to change the policy and allow female Muslim athletes the opportunity to compete. The resistance of FIBA and other international sports organizations to ending such restrictions where they are unnecessary is a shame, impacting millions of women around the world who are unable to see others like them on that stage.
As Chaudry and Singh write,
It adds insult to injury to be on track to fulfill your dream to compete professionally at the highest level, only to be told you’re out unless you trade off your faith.
Indeed. Here is hoping that the example of Ibtihaj Muhammad and others will motivate them to rethink those restrictions.
