In Gurinder Chadha's 2002 film Bend it Like Beckham, the young, female, British Indian protagonist fought against the prejudice of her well-intentioned family to pursue her love of soccer, Irish coaches, and happy endings. Five years later, an 11 year-old soccer player was asked by an official (a Muslim, incidentally) in the town of Laval, Quebec to remove her hijab before playing in a tournament. Asmahan (Azzy) Mansour refused and her team (and several others) walked out in solidarity with her.

The result has been a Zidane-sized storm of protest across Canada, with the international body FIFA starting an investigation. Quebec, the perpetually twitchy "distinct society" of Canada, was also in the news recently when one of its rural towns, Herouxville, established a "code of living" that prohibited stoning and female circumcision, ostensibly aimed at Muslim immigrants (a delegation of Muslim women visited last month before the town revoked some of the offending passages).

The soccer ejection was backed by Quebec Premier Jean Charest who, along with the Quebec Soccer Federation, was almost alone among Canadian organisations and politicians to support the ban. "It's up to them to apply the rules, and they applied them in the way they saw fit," said Charest. "I don't have a problem with that." There are a number of precedents worldwide in hijab wearing athletes of other sports, from gold-medal winner Ruqaya Al Ghasara at last year's Asian Games to the Lady Caliphs basketball team to the Burqinis on the beaches of Sydney and Los Angeles (though the non-hijabis like Sania Mirza could use the same sympathy).

Mansour's herself felt responsible for her team's forfeiting the match. "I'm so sorry my team couldn't play," said Mansour. "It was my fault." But despite the sympathy and precedents, FIFA's rule-governing body, the International Football Association Board, leaned toward the referee in the case at a meeting in Manchester, England. "It's absolutely right to be sensitive to people's thoughts and philosophies," said a representative. "But equally there has to be a set of laws that are adhered to, and we favor law 4 being adhered to." (Law 4 governs what may be worn on the head during a game). The Canadian Soccer Association, to whom Quebec authorities said they would yield to, is unlikely to go against the IFAB, though the ruling was also not seen as clearly defined. "I truly think they should have (overridden) what Quebec's rule is," said Asmahan's mother Maria. "(She) is still hoping that Quebec will remove that rule someday so she will be able to play (in Quebec)."

In the meantime, Azzy is determined to show that she's not going to give up easily. She scored two goals during a game in Ottawa just as the FIFA ruling was announced.

sania mirza is akin to a cheap harlot. The world no. 2 men's player has more clothe on his shorts then no. 30 ranked sania has on her entire body. quite pathetic that she should be mentioned in the same vein as a poor hijab wearing girl trying to find breathing space in sports.

So, hajibaba, you have enough experience hanging around with "cheap harlots" to draw a comparison? Does that make you the sort of Muslim whose opinion others should follow?

If one is defending the choice to wear hijab, I'm afraid that will have to extend to the choice not to.

"If one is defending the choice to wear hijab, I'm afraid that will have to extend to the choice not to. "

I really have no problem with Sania Mirza walking around in a thong for millions to see. It is her choice. I certainly have problem when Muslim websites start adopting her as a poster child.

Modesty is one of the cornerstones of Islam. What has Sania Mirza done to earn the right to be a poster child for Muslim girls. ZERO. ZILCH as far as I can tell. Forget hijab, how about covering you thighs for a start!!!

Is it worth being a world class athlete if it requires prancing around naked in front of the whole world. Our Muslim leaders apparently think so. Asmahan for some odd reason does'nt. Weird.

I think Asmahan just wants to play soccer and be herself. Elevating her to some willing martyr for "Islamic modesty" is probably the farthest thing from her mind. As for modesty being a cornerstone, a) its always the females getting hit for *not* being modest and b) actually, tawhid and the rest of the pillars are *the* cornerstones of Islam. Modesty can be had by anyone, Muslim or not. Tawhid is exclusively Muslim, however.

Just let the kid play. Another reason to dislike the French.

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<polite applause>

"Modesty can be had by anyone, Muslim or not. Tawhid is exclusively Muslim, however."

Well, the way I see it, at different times in different places, Muslims have offered mankind different solutions to life's everyday problems. Tawhid being one no doubt. Cleanliness, civil society, learning, modesty, brotherhood, charity, chivalry, etc etc etc being others.

Of course in today's age, Western civilization has mastered cleanliness, civil society, learning and the likes whereby we Muslims as a collective whole come across as backward in those areas. But they have done so at the expense of other virtues. Modesty being one of them.

I don't necessarily agree with the idea that modesty can be acquired by anybody. It seems to me to be increasingly a domain exclusive to Muslims in today's day and age. We should appreciate its importance. Perhaps in centuries past, modesty was less of a distinguishing characteristic among disparate cultures.

Certainly, both choices need to be respected. Remember - there is no coercion in Islam. While you walk around feeling "holier than thou" hajibaba, there may be something that the non-hijaba Muslima is doing that you are not that will grant her more rewards than the scarf on your head. Get off your high horse.

>>Cleanliness, civil society, learning, modesty, brotherhood, charity, chivalry, etc etc etc being others.

And it can be successfully argued that the Indus civilization had cleanliness before most others, and Greece had a civil society before others, that China excelled in charity before others, the Mayans had brotherhood, the pre-Islamic Arabs surely were chivalrous! etc... These are *human* characteristics that our Quran encourages us to have, but by no means were they invented by Muslims nor were they or are they exclusive to Muslims. In fact, I can't recall anything in the Quran or hadith which says these things are exclusive to Muslims. Afterall, Pharoah's wife had enough compassion to rescue baby Musa so...maybe the Egyptians excelled in compassion? I think its faulty thinking to try to derive characteristics of entire civlizations based on universal characteristics or individual actions.

If "BushTerrorWarForMakeBenefitGloriousNationOfIsrael" got the annual award of the name contest, then OmarG lattest replay for hajibaba should be awarded the best answer regarding to universal characteristics.

Off topic, I'm no expert in Islam but from what I remember, the wife of Pharoah was a believer in monotheism while the rest of the Egyptian populace was not. Reading Biblical sources, the Egyptians hardly come off as the compassion type.

...which was my point...and even today they are still not ;-)

>>> sania mirza is akin to a cheap harlot.

Thats a ridiculous thing to say! Most tennis players aren't dressing to trump up sexual favours. The fact that you would make this insinuation sickens me. How our tongues invent charges against people and cause much sin on ourselves.


That said. Modesty is a bedrock of an Islamic value. It goes beyond what we wear to a quality of dignifying ourselves and protecting our sexual and social behaviour and a guard on our piety against other excesses. It is very important.

>> Perhaps in centuries past, modesty was less of a distinguishing characteristic among disparate cultures.

That makes it even less exclusive a value.

>> Elevating her to some willing martyr for "Islamic modesty" is probably the farthest thing from her mind.

Pity the actual. Martyrs make us feel warm and fuzzy inside.

"Modesty is one of the cornerstones of Islam."

Really?

Maybe I wasn't properly taught about Islam, but I always thought the cornerstones were the five pillars of Islam...and interestingly, how a woman should dress isn't one of the five pillars.

So let me get this straight, you can be a serial fornicating drunk murderer, but as long as you believe in one God, pray five times a day, fast, do Hajj and pay charity, you are "a practising Muslim".

>>So let me get this straight, you can be a serial fornicating drunk murderer, but as long as you believe in one God, pray five times a day, fast, do Hajj and pay charity, you are "a practising Muslim".

Read the Quran...and the hadith, one of which I will transmit to you (paraphrased, for full disclosure): "A Bedouin came to the Prophet and asked what Islam was. The Prophet told him about iman and the five pillars. The man said, 'I swear by the One, I will do **no more and no less**'. He went away and the Prophet told his companions, 'If he is telling the tturh, he will go to paradise'."

So, Islam is easy as is said in another hadith. The sins a soul commits against itself is up to God to forgive or to punish for. These sins, as completely agreed upon by most fuqaha, do NOT take someone out of Islam, especially if they continue with the pillars. Now, the real question to ask: how willing would you be to help such people who continue to practice yet cannot or will not leave off of sinning against themselves (murder falls under the legal system)??

Hijababa- your slander against someone may indeed be a much graver sinned than their lack of modesty.

Hey Solomon:

Where can I buy good quality organic soap?

The problem is that people are afraid to call a spade a spade. Women's tennis is basically part of the soft-porn industry. If women wore long pants and lose clothes while playing professional tennis, advertising revenue would plummet. And the thing would be 1/5th its current size.

I am all for Muslim women participating in sports. Sports is good, good for health, good to reach across cultural barriers etc etc. But if you are prancing around without any clothes on buck naked in front of millions of male viewers, you are basically a porn star, albeit with a respectable name. "Professional Athelte". Ha ha haha.

No one is preventing Sania Mirza from wearing "decent" outfit while playing tennis in public. Nor will that effect her performance all that much. Assuming she is raised in a God-fearing Muslim household, I doubt she is unaware of the idea that Muslim women should dress modestly in public. Duh.