Tuesday, July 10, 2012

The Sad Case of Rayane and her Hijab and “No you cannot play”


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The Sad Case of Rayane and her Hijab and “No you cannot play”
Now this story is a Sad one. It is Sad because of how Mad you can get when you read it.

The story is about a nine year old girl that wears a Hijab head scarf, which is part of her religious practice as part of her Islamic faith… out of honour for Allah.

Her name is Rayane and she loves soccer and apparently can do well.

Where did this happen? The soccer game was in Gatineau, Quebec from what I have gleaned.  That is in Canada if you aren’t from my country.

It is not in an Islamic country where women are not allowed to be who they really are because of strict laws made by men… i.e. shut up and cover up everything – men know best.  This was Canada!

I have moved to Mad now and am telling you that it makes me Sad that it happened in our country.

In the article that I picked up this morning from ABNA News Agency (ABNA.co) it tells of the story… and if you read it you can see more in it than what happens when a nine year old girl wants to wear a religious item during soccer.

It seems that Rayane played two games – Friday and Saturday games – while wearing her hijab head scarf.  It was the final game – meaning that their team had likely won every game to advance to that level… that she was told that she could not play because of illegal head gear that had not been tested by the officials of the league.

ABNA reported that this scarf could have been worn… quote… “The order came just days after the International Football Association Board voted to lift its ban based on the fact that “there is no medical literature concerning injuries as a result of wearing a headscarf,” the organization stated on its website.” End quote

Now putting these pieces together I am going Mad again and still Sad.

This is about parents of little kids being jealous of the way that other teams play and the better players being on other teams – than where your kid is!!! Pure and simple – it is not about a hijab or any religion or any nationality…  It is not about safety!!! It is pride and stupidity!

I have a 13 year old granddaughter for whom I have attended a lot of soccer games. I have witnessed the tournament thing as well where really good teams come in and walk all over my granddaughter’s team. The final score is a disaster.

The team that beat them in one case was almost all Black Girls.  Yikes!  Even for me to write the word out while telling you this story is dangerous.  People will think that I think that Black is the reason for the loss “our team” experienced.  That is not so… their team was good – very good.

Heaven help us if we used the kind of reasoning that the Gatineau leadership did – which is any reason to get them out of the way so we cannot be trounced.

You’ve got to be kidding Lincoln!  There isn’t that kind of rivalry in children’s soccer – is there!?

Yes there is. I have seen it.

There are also coaches that are not very good. They don’t have a clue how to encourage the kids playing.  The girls get discouraged as coaches make dumb statements and bad decisions… and the team loses.

I know one thing about the Gatineau tournament and Rayane’s team… they all will be affected by the attitude of the people that forced this ruling at that game.  By removing the 9 year old who refused to take off her hijab.

Now tell me – Sad? Mad? Sad and Mad?  What are you feeling now?

~ Murray Lincoln ~

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2 comments:

Leonde Haven said...

I felt very sorry for this young girl who's trying so hard to conquer her dreams of being a best football player. A girl who was taken out of chances all because she is a muslimah and all because she is following a certain religious practice. Someone should have done something to change this rules.

Murray Lincoln said...

Dear Leonde... I feared that people will take it as an action against her religious practice of wearing this Ha-jib. I doubt very much that this is the problem. Someone(s) has made this ruling more because of selfish reasons and then hid behind the furor of the assumption. It is more likely pure and simple jealousy on the part of opposing parents... What it has taught the team members of the opposing team - is you can do anything you need to do to WIN... hurt others and badger them into submission with your own rules... and then hide. That is Canadian Terrorism at its best(or worst)!