{"id":11808,"date":"2011-10-27T16:58:51","date_gmt":"2011-10-27T12:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=11808"},"modified":"2011-11-30T10:37:11","modified_gmt":"2011-11-30T06:37:11","slug":"a-cultural-rather-than-religious-symbol-compromise-near-in-hijab-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-sports-news-and-analysis\/a-cultural-rather-than-religious-symbol-compromise-near-in-hijab-dispute\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Cultural’ Symbol: Hijab Dispute Nears End"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>World soccer body FIFA and observant Muslim women soccer players may be close to a compromise in their dispute over the wearing of the hijab, a headdress that covers the neck, ears and hair.<\/p>\n

The dispute led in June to the disqualification of the Iranian women\u2019s national team after they appeared on the pitch in the Jordanian capital Amman for a 2012 London Olympics qualifier against Jordan because the players wore the hijab. Three Jordanian players who wear the hijab were also barred.<\/p>\n

The Iranian team\u2019s insistence on wearing the hijab contradicted an agreement reached last year in Singapore between FIFA and the Iranian Football Federation (IFF) under which the Iranians agreed to the wearing of a cap that covered hair but not the neck.<\/p>\n

Prominent soccer executives, women players, coaches and referees agreed at a brainstorm in Amman this week convened by FIFA Vice President Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, a half-brother of King Abdullah, that the hijab is a cultural rather than a religious symbol.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hijab issue has taken centre stage in football circles in recent years due to the increasing popularity of women\u2019s football worldwide. It is a cultural issue that not only affects the game, but also impacts society and sports in general. It is not limited to Asia, but extends to other continents as well,\u201d the executives and players said in a statement.<\/p>\n

By defining the hijab as a cultural symbol, the group, meeting under the auspices of the Asian Football Development Project (AFDP), an NGO founded by Prince Ali to advance grassroots, youth and women\u2019s soccer, hopes to lay the groundwork for a compromise that acknowledges the cultural requirements of observant Muslim women and meets FIFA\u2019s health and safety standards.<\/p>\n

In doing so, the group, which included FIFA Executive Committee member and head of the body\u2019s medical committee Michel D\u2019Hooghe, Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Vice President Moya Dodd, members of FIFA\u2019s women committee as well as representatives of the soccer bodies of Jordan, Bahrain, Iran and the United Kingdom, hope to work around FIFA\u2019s ban on the wearing of religious or political symbols on the pitch.<\/p>\n

The group called on FIFA to articulate a clear policy that \u201cavoid(s) any form of discrimination or exclusion of football players due to cultural customs\u201d and establishes the pitch as \u201ca forum for cultural exchange rather than conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soccer executives said privately that the issue of the hijab had been complicated by the fact that the ban of the hijab on the pitch is based on a ruling by the International Football Association Board (IFAB) that determines the rules of the game. Interpretation of the IFAB ban on religious, political and personal symbols is left however to referees, which has led to differing interpretations on the pitch. It was the referee\u2019s decision in June that led to Iran\u2019s disqualification.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rules have to be adapted to the evolution of the game and the society or interpreted accordingly,\u201d the group said, noting that \u201cFIFA is committed to the basic principles of non-discrimination and allows on this basis the use of the head covering.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group said \u201csafety must remain the most important consideration for the use of hijab.\u201d It\u00a0said that FIFA would coordinate accelerated research to ensure that the hijab or headdress worn by women on the pitch ensured safety in the game. It called on FIFA to consider \u201cinnovative designs \u2026. \u00a0with full consideration of medical aspects, particularly safety, aesthetic arguments, type of material.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group said that FIFA should weigh lower safety risks against the greater health benefit of women playing soccer and asserted that allowing the hijab would persuade more women to become players and empower them across cultures.<\/p>\n

Prince Ali and Mr. D\u2019Hooghe will put the principles adopted by the group to FIFA at its next executive committee meeting scheduled for December. The prince together with Ms. Dodd would also table the principles at next month\u2019s AFC executive committee meeting, the statement said. It said that the principles would have to be \u201cin accordance with the safety aspects\u201d so that they could be proposed to IFAB when it meets in February 2012.<\/p>\n

Farideh Khanom Shojaei, a member of the Iranian soccer body\u2019s women\u2019s committee, and Houshang Moghaddas, the international relations advisor to IFF President Ali Kafashian, said in an interview that the group\u2019s proposal marked a significant step forward.<\/p>\n

Ms. Shojaei and Mr. Moghaddas suggested however that final agreement on a compromise could still prove difficult. \u201cThe neck is very important,\u201d Ms. Shojaei said, suggesting that Iran would insist on a design that covered not only the hair but also neck.<\/p>\n

Ms. Shojaei and Mr. Moghaddas acknowledged that the fact that the hijab is compulsory for Iranian women players and that Iran imposes the wearing of the hijab on foreign teams playing in the Islamic republic was likely to remain an issue even if FIFA and IFAB adopt the group\u2019s principles. Iran is the only country that has made the hijab compulsory for its players as well as for visiting foreign teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JAMES M. DORSEY: It has been a running sore between FIFA, football’s world governing body, and women’s football teams throughout the Islamic world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":11809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,173,482,7],"tags":[2224,9363,3793,9364,295,1209,2998,18303,319,338,9366,18306,8355,18305,1808,3670,318,18337,133,177],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11808"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}