ISLAMIC DEFENDERS DENY COVER-UP FOR WOMEN’S GAMES
Middle East Times, Egypt
Sept 22 2005
TEHRAN — Supporters of Iran’s Islamic Women’s Games have dismissed
arguments that the event is a sideshow to gag women competitors denied
access to the Olympic Games.
“We are seeking to empower and encourage Muslim women, who are absent
from the international sports grounds due to their beliefs,” said
Faezeh Hashemi, daughter of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani,
who started the games in 1993.
French basketball umpire Chantal Julien, who officiated at the 2001
Games, added: “It’s clear some of them would like to compete abroad.
However, they do not believe they’re prisoners.”
Since the Islamic revolution Iranian women have been mostly banned
from international sporting events due to the obligatory headscarf
and long coat that they must wear in front of men.
Under the previous reformist government of the last eight years, Iran
started sending women athletes to competitions abroad in the events
where women are able to compete and wear the veil, such as shooting,
taekwondo, fencing, canoeing, chess and horse riding.
In the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Iran had a sole female
representative – Nassim Hassanpour – in pistol shooting.
An American Muslim runner is to be the first woman to represent the
US in Iran, although photographers will not be allowed to record the
event, which runs from September 22 to 28.
Saira Kureshi, 26, will race in the 800 and 1500 meters in the fourth
all-women games.
Male coaches, referees and spectators are banned from the Games
except for golf, shooting and archery, where participants are modestly
dressed and veiled.
Only these three competitions are open to male spectators and can be
photographed or filmed, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies
since the women appear in Islamic wear.
In order to attract more athletes, this year non-Muslim women have been
allowed to participate as long as they are on the national teams of
their countries and agree to compete under the stipulated conditions.
Sportswomen from 48 countries, many of them Islamic, will compete in
18 sports. Iran’s Christian northern neighbor, Armenia, is sending
17 teams.
Athletics, shooting, table tennis and taekwondo have attracted the
most participants.
The weeklong event has few sponsors and has been allocated a budget of
10 billion Iranian riyals ($1.1 million), which according to Hashemi
“is barely enough” to cover costs.
“The games do not satisfy sponsors as there are no television cameras
to show their advertisements,” she explained.
Although Iran has been approached by other Muslim countries such as
Pakistan and Qatar wanting to host the games, Hashemi sees little
chance of them leaving Iran.
“Other countries have different interpretations of Islam. I am not
sure they would be able to hold the games like us with such observance
of Islamic rules,” she said.
Pakistan blotted its book by sending a woman swimmer to Athens.
And it is difficult to see the likes of a Nawal Al Moutawakel or
Hassiba Boulmerka emerging from these Games.
Morocco’s Moutawakel became the first woman from an Islamic nation to
win an Olympic medal and the first Moroccan athlete of either sex to
win a gold medal when she won the 400-meter hurdles at the 1984 Los
Angeles Olympics.
In 1998 Moutawakel was chosen to be a member of the International
Olympic Committee.
Boulmerka scored a stunning upset victory in the 1,500 meters at the
1991 World Athletics Championships. When she returned to Algiers she
was hailed as a national heroine and as a model for Arab women who
wanted to break away from restrictive roles. But she was also condemned
by Islamic fundamentalists and was forced to move to Europe to train.
She went on to win the 1992 Olympic gold medal.
But International Olympic Committee member Anita De Frantz of the
United States, a 1976 Olympic rowing bronze medal winner, refused to
close the door.
“It’s a step [for Muslim women] toward the Olympic Games,” she said
recently.