Zach LarkinsSOCCER and the HIJAB
What should be a non-story is likely to develop into a full blown question of Muslim rights vs a soccer league's tournament.
This past Sunday the Nepean Hotspurs Selects forfeited a game, and the tournament, when a referee said 11-year-old Asmahan (Azzy) Mansour couldn't wear her hijab while playing. The team was playing in a major tournament in Laval, just north of Montreal and attended by almost 300 teams over three weekends. The coach pulled his team in protest and two other teams followed suit.
This incident is apparently so important that Quebec Premier Jean Charest has been asked to comment. He agrees with the ref. "I remember a game when the referee stopped the game so that the players could put their T-shirts in their shorts," he said.
The Muslims are citing their right to freedom of religion. The soccer league and tournament organizers are citing safety aspects. Although a tournament organizer, Carole Fortin, said to her knowledge there had never been a question of wearing a hijab in the past, that or any other headgear is forbidden on Quebec soccer fields to prevent the possibility of strangulation or other injury. Louis Maneiro, Azzy's coach, called the referee's ruling "ridiculous.""This is basically telling the world that no Muslim girl is allowed to play the sport," he said.
The ejection of Mansour has reignited Quebec's debate over reasonable accommodation for minorities. But the hijab violates a no-headgear rule set down by the sport's governing body for safety reasons. "My understanding is that the referee applied the rules of the soccer federation and that's why that decision was made," Charest said. And so the tale should end here. But it probably won't.
Others have slammed the referee's decision, saying it's just another example of how Quebec is trying to get immigrants to toe a cultural line. Debate has raged in the province in recent weeks about so-called "reasonable accommodation" of ethnic, cultural and religious minorities. Herouxville, a sleepy town in central Quebec has adopted a declaration of "norms" that tells immigrants how to fit in and forbids face coverings other than on Halloween. In Montreal, men were banned from prenatal classes at one Montreal community centre to accommodate Muslim, Sikh and Hindu women. Andre Lecours, a Concordia University political scientist, said Quebec is simply catching up to other parts of the Western world on the issue, citing similar debates in France and the Netherlands. So I guess I was right when I said that on both sides of the pond, people are getting fed up with Muslim demands.
Miss Faith has an article about demands made by Muslims in the UK and has been taken to task for it. The Muslim supporters seem to think that a 72 page book is merely ‘asking' for accommodation of the faith, not demanding rules be changed to their liking. To see just where this issue might end, all we have to do is look at Maria Mansour, the girl's mother. She says her daughter was "humiliated" and believes the incident "was racially motivated." Nonsense.
The referee was simply enforcing the rules set down by the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). Valmie Ouellet, the co-ordinator of regional technical services for the Quebec Soccer Federation, pointed out jewelry's a no-no as well. "That's in the same law and if I was a fervent Catholic and I wanted to wear my chain and my crucifix around my neck for the game, I wouldn't be allowed to do so for the same safety reasons." She said that it doesn't really matter that Mansour tucks her hijab into her shirt. "In the nature of the play, shirts are grabbed. What would happen to that player's neck and head?"
I suppose the biggest obstacle the Muslims will have to overcome is the fact that the referee is himself a Muslim.
Sources: Nelson Wyatt Just Following Rules Canadian Press
Andy Riga & Jan Ravensbergen Charest Supports Soccer Referee CanWest News
This past Sunday the Nepean Hotspurs Selects forfeited a game, and the tournament, when a referee said 11-year-old Asmahan (Azzy) Mansour couldn't wear her hijab while playing. The team was playing in a major tournament in Laval, just north of Montreal and attended by almost 300 teams over three weekends. The coach pulled his team in protest and two other teams followed suit.
This incident is apparently so important that Quebec Premier Jean Charest has been asked to comment. He agrees with the ref. "I remember a game when the referee stopped the game so that the players could put their T-shirts in their shorts," he said.
The ejection of Mansour has reignited Quebec's debate over reasonable accommodation for minorities. But the hijab violates a no-headgear rule set down by the sport's governing body for safety reasons. "My understanding is that the referee applied the rules of the soccer federation and that's why that decision was made," Charest said. And so the tale should end here. But it probably won't.
Others have slammed the referee's decision, saying it's just another example of how Quebec is trying to get immigrants to toe a cultural line. Debate has raged in the province in recent weeks about so-called "reasonable accommodation" of ethnic, cultural and religious minorities. Herouxville, a sleepy town in central Quebec has adopted a declaration of "norms" that tells immigrants how to fit in and forbids face coverings other than on Halloween. In Montreal, men were banned from prenatal classes at one Montreal community centre to accommodate Muslim, Sikh and Hindu women. Andre Lecours, a Concordia University political scientist, said Quebec is simply catching up to other parts of the Western world on the issue, citing similar debates in France and the Netherlands. So I guess I was right when I said that on both sides of the pond, people are getting fed up with Muslim demands.
The referee was simply enforcing the rules set down by the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). Valmie Ouellet, the co-ordinator of regional technical services for the Quebec Soccer Federation, pointed out jewelry's a no-no as well. "That's in the same law and if I was a fervent Catholic and I wanted to wear my chain and my crucifix around my neck for the game, I wouldn't be allowed to do so for the same safety reasons." She said that it doesn't really matter that Mansour tucks her hijab into her shirt. "In the nature of the play, shirts are grabbed. What would happen to that player's neck and head?"
I suppose the biggest obstacle the Muslims will have to overcome is the fact that the referee is himself a Muslim.
Sources: Nelson Wyatt Just Following Rules Canadian Press
Andy Riga & Jan Ravensbergen Charest Supports Soccer Referee CanWest News
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