![]() “The Saudi Arabian athlete will take part in judo and she will fight according to the principles and spirit of judo, so, without a hijab,” declared IJF president Marius Vizer. They’re near one another at the competition and training venues, whether on the track or at the judoka hall, where bouts are staged simultaneously on several mats.Īpparently, the Judo Federation didn’t get the memo. Athletes live together, men and women, in the Olympic Village. The IOC appears to have agreed accepted these strictures although how physical separation of sexes could possibly by secured during the Games is difficult to fathom. Each would be saddled with a “guardian” to accompany them at all at times, and both would be kept from any contact with males. These two athletes were commanded to wear “suitable clothing that complies with sharia” during competition. The Saudis were unrelenting in demanding special accommodations for their gadabout girls, already denounced in some quarters back home (if Saudi Arabia can be considered “home” for Attar) as shameless and “prostitutes,” sports viewed as an inappropriate pursuit for females. ![]() Afterwards, everything would fade once again to black swaddling and misogyny.Ĭoncession to gender inclusiveness came with strict conditions: sharia law would remain paramount. It’s rumoured that no less an eminence than King Abdullah himself made known his support for unshackling females, if only for this specific endeavour, in this finite time period. The country’s most senior sports authority, Prince Nawaf bin Faisal, exerted all his influence to bring disapproving government officials and powerful clerics around to the 21st century. Once Brunei and Qatar - the only other nations historically stag at the Olympics - announced they would include females on their squads for London 2012, the deeply conservative Saudis had been left by their gender-segregated lonesome. Related: Saudi women athletes stir online venom, praise (Two, in fact, on Team Kingdom: Shaherkani, the 18-year-old judoka trained by her father who had never before stepped outside her country, and Sarah Attar, an 800-metre runner who grew up mostly in California, contentedly headscarf-free.) She’s in only if she removes her hijab, out if forbidden to wear it.Īs of Saturday night, the International Olympic Committee had yet to make heads or tails of the furor.Ī week ago, the IOC was all chuffed with itself, delighted to have sweet-talk strong-armed the Saudis into sending their first female athlete ever to a Games. ![]() LONDON-A tug of war over a piece of cloth.Īt one end, the International Judo Federation at the other end, Saudi Arabia.Īnd in the middle, a teenage girl who just wants the opportunity to compete at the Olympic Games yet is strangled by rules: religious, cultural, sporting.įirst, Wojdan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shaherkani was in, now it appears she’s out.
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