Hijab in Sports:
According to the United Nations, everyone has the “fundamental right” to participate in sports.
Athletic competitions and sporting events can have a unifying power, as they can bring together individuals across cultures, countries and races.
While unity, solidarity and equality are fundamental values that sports are said to be premised on, many individuals have been exempt from participating, especially in major sporting events, such as the Olympics and other international mega-sport organizations, like FIFA.
These exclusionary practices and regulations are exemplified in the case of female Muslims athletes who wear hijabs.
In 2007, the International Federation of Association Football, more simply known as FIFA, banned the hijab. Law 4 of FIFA’s regulations, which pertains to players’ equipment, stated that players are prohibited from wearing “equipment that is dangerous to himself or another player” — This law included hijabs.
Although this regulation was unknown to many, it came to light after an Iranian team was disqualified from their match against Jordan in the 2012 Olympics after refusing to remove their hijabs. Three veiled Jordanian players were also banned from the game.
Later in 2014, after much backlash and dispute, the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the governing body of international football, retracted this policy, stating that the “male and female players can now wear head covers, [as] there was no indication as to why the wearing of head covers should be prohibited”.
Many Muslim athletes and game officials expressed emotions of happiness after hearing that the ban had been retracted. The Iranian Football Federation’s vice president, Farideh Shojaei, made the following statement:
“We are really happy that they overturned the ban and that we can now play in headscarves. And I can tell you that wearing the hijab doesn’t affect our players’ performance, and we are just so happy that we can now compete in international competitions.”
Although the lifting of this ban is a victory for Muslim athletes worldwide, the fact remains that the hijab should never have been banned.
This leads us to the question: why was the ban really enforced in the first place?
While FIFA claimed that the hijab was banned because it poses a great risk of injury to players’ head and neck, many others believed that this law had Islamophobic underpinnings that specifically targeted Muslim women:
“It wasn’t about safety precautions. It was more about increasing Islamaphobia in the world and the growing animosity Muslim women face.” — Farrah Khan, a Toronto social worker and activist
If the hijab ban was based solely on safety precautions, then why had FIFA not worked with Iranian players to develop safer gear? In fact, FIFA rejected Iran’s sports hijabs that were specially developed in accordance with FIFA’s regulations.
Despite the attempts of Hijabi athletes to mediate this issue, FIFA argued that hijabs could accidentally be pulled or tugged on by competitors. If this was the case, then long hair is just as equally dangerous as the hijab; however, these strict regulations were not implemented in such cases.
The alienation and discrimination against Hijabi soccer players clearly points to prejudiced views of Muslims and Islam.
Islamophobia against veiled athletes is not a new sentiment. Islamophobic and racist Western colonial discourses have long policed Muslim women’s bodies through their choice of clothing, referring to them as oppressive and controlling. These viewpoints are often based on one-sided, inaccurate depictions of Islamic communities and have shown to have severe implications for Muslim athletes.
FIFA’s lift of the ban on hijabs is greatly celebrated and appreciated by many; however, it opens a challenging conversation about complex meanings of the hijab and other religious garments. Sporting regulations that prohibit hijabs have profound consequences for Hijabi women and youth, who are in turn discouraged from entering into the field of sports.
To eliminate these problems in the future, FIFA, as well as other governing bodies of sports associations, must make an conscious effort to support Muslim athletes by eradicating systemic racism and Islamophobia within their organizations.
Tatiana Neil, 1002557896
Works Cited
Erdbrink, Thomas. “Olympics 2012: FIFA bans headscarves for Iranian women’s soccer team.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 6 June 2011, www.washingtonpost.com/sports/united/olympics-2012-fifa-bans-headscarves-for-irans-women-soccer-team/2011/06/06/AGzT1JKH_story.html.
“FIFA Laws of the Game 2007/2008.” Fédération Internationale de Football Association , 2007. http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/federation/laws_of_the_game_0708_10565.pdf
Voiceonline. “International Football Association Board (FIFA) officially authorizes wearing of head covers in soccer games.” Indo-Canadian Voice, 7 Mar. 2014, www.voiceonline.com/international-football-association-board-agrees-no-indication-why-wearing-of-head-covers-should-be-prohibited-in-soccer/.
Jazeera, Al. “FIFA lifts ban on head covers.” Muslim Hijab News | Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, 1 Mar. 2014, www.aljazeera.com/sport/football/2014/03/fifa-allows-hijab-turban-players-20143113053667394.html.
“United Nations: Office on Sport for Development and Peace.” United Nations, United Nations, www.un.org/sport/content/why-sport/overview.
