Maldives Women’s Team Forfeit Basketball Tournament Over Headscarf Ban

BY: MINIVAN NEWS

The Maldives’ women’s basketball team refused to play without their headscarves, forfeiting the International Basketball Federation’s (FIBA) first under 18 three-on-three tournament held in Bangkok, Thailand earlier this week.

“The girls were really upset, we are as well. We came prepared based on the uniform the team wore in the last two games,” Maldives Basketball Association (MBA) President Ahmed Hafiz told Minivan News today (May 27).

“According to FIBA, the head cannot be covered during play. We have to go with FIBA rules if we want to play,” Hafiz stated.

The Maldives’ women’s basketball team has been allowed to participate in past tournaments while wearing burugaathah (headscarves), however the decision to make an exception to the rules “depends on the officials”, according to Hafiz.

“Qatar held a tournament two weeks back and there were some complaints that the Qatar team was wearing headgear, so FIBA was forced to apply the rules,” Hafiz explained. “Maybe that is the reason this issue came up for the Maldives [in this tournament].”

FIBA Asia has designed a jersey for Muslim players, but still needs to obtain FIBA international approval, according to the MBA.

“FIBA Asia is working on this because lots of Muslim countries are involved. Now the are suggesting to FIBA International to change the rules to allow headgear,” said Hafiz.

The Maldives’ under 18 women’s team is planning to participate in the upcoming Asian Youth Games, to be held this August in Nanjing, China, according to Hafiz.

“However, [the choice] is up to the players. We will not force them,” he said.

“This is a big problem for the game and will ruin the development of women’s basketball for a place like this, because there are still very few girl players and most wear the burugaa,” MBA Secretary General Arif Riza told Minivan News today.

“FIBA is pretty clear about the rules, so although the team has been allowed to play twice before, this was a mistake of ours also,” said Riza.

The primary issues of concern to MBA are that FIBA permitted the Maldives’ team to wear headscarves during tournaments in 2011 and 2012 as well as allowed other teams to play in violation of different dress code rules, such as wearing t-shirts instead of jerseys, according to Riza.

“Immediately after President Hafiz arrives [from Thailand] we will discuss the issue and write FIBA a letter,” said Riza.

“They should be allowed to have the right to play,” he declared.

FIBA Response

The headgear ban is “a part of FIBA Rules, but not a policy,” FIBA AsiaSecretary General Hagop Khajirian told Minivan News Thursday (May 23).

“It has nothing to do with headscarves as such, but more to do with the regulations which stipulate that the playing gears of players has to be such that it may not cause any harm or hindrance to themselves or opponent players,” explained Khajirian.

Although these rules have “been the case always”, FIBA is currently reviewing the headscarf restriction.

“There have been requests from many nations regarding this. And the FIBA Asia Central Board, in its meeting [held] on April 24 in Kuala Lumpur, resolved to send a study paper to FIBA to be taken up for further consideration,” said Khajirian.

The choice to cover

While Maldivian women’s participation in basketball is slowly increasing, netballis popular nationwide. Although there are key distinctions between the two sports – such as no dribbling in netball – the rules are very similar, according to a skilled Maldivian netball player of nine years and student coach of six years.

“Wearing the burugaa while playing netball is no problem for us, it is not difficult and we’ve never experienced any injuries [from the headscarves],” she explained on condition of anonimity.

“Every person has the choice of whether or not they choose to wear the burugaa. However, it is a religious thing, in Islam Muslims have to cover, it is the right thing,” she continued.

“Although some are not wearing [headscarves], that is their choice,” she added.

The netball enthusiast agreed with the Maldives’ women’s basketball team decision to not remove their headscarves and forefit their game in the recent FIBA three-on-three tournament.

“Their choice was the correct one, they do not want to break religous rules,” she said.

“FIBA should change their rules if they want Maldivians to participate, because so many [women] are wearing burugaathah. They have to change so everyone can compete,” she added.

Burugaa bans

A senor researcher from the internatonal NGO, Human Rights Watch, previously highlighted the discriminatory issue of banning women from wearing headscarves, in a 2012 article “Banning Muslim Veil Denies Women a Choice, Too”.

“The sad irony is that whether they are being forced to cover up or to uncover, these women are being discriminated against. Banned from wearing the hijab – a traditional Muslim headscarf – or forced to veil themselves, women around the world are being stripped of their basic rights to personal autonomy; to freedom of expression; and to freedom of religion, thought and conscience,” wrote Judith Sunderland.

“Denying women the right to cover themselves is as wrong as forcing them to do so. Muslim women, like all women, should have the right to dress as they choose and to make decisions about their lives and how to express their faith, identity and moral values. And they should not be forced to choose between their beliefs and their chosen profession,” notes the article.

Muslim women’s basketball players in Switzerland and Baharain have also faced controversial opposition to their refual to remove their headscarves.

The Baharaini team was “lauded” for their refusal to remove their headscarves during an international competition in 2009, according to Gulf News.

Meanwhile, Sura Al-Shawk, a 19 year-old STV Luzern basketball player, was denied permission to play while wearing a headscarf by the Swiss basketball association ProBasket in 2010, reported the Associated Press.

ProBasket told the Associated Press it followed FIBA rules and that wearing the headscarf while playing basketball “could increase the risk of injury and the sport has to be religiously neutral”.

In July 2012, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)overturned a headscarf ban, which was put into place in 2007, after a yearlong campaign led by FIFA vice president Prince Ali of Jordan, reported the Associated Press.

http://minivannews.com/society/maldives-womens-team-forfeit-basketball-tournament-over-headscarf-ban-58580?utm_content=buffer7262a&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=linkedin&utm_campaign=Buffer

Veiled Basketballer Finds Support in US

Despite opposition in different American schools, officials at Gilbert school were open to accept Alahwas' uniform.

BY: ONISLAM 

WINSTED — Finding support among school officials, a veiled Muslim player has joined basketball team in her Connecticut school, hoping to offer a role model for Muslim girls in the United States.

"It is because of my religion," Buthaina Alahwas, a new veield sophomore at Gilbert School in Winsted, Connecticut, told Republican American sports website on Monday, March 4.

"I have to respect my religion." the 16-year-old girl, who moved here from Yemen 11 months ago, added.

She also wears long sleeves and long pants under her uniform to keep modest.Coming from a devout Muslim family, Alahwas wears a hijab, or headscarf, that covers her hair and neck.

Despite opposition in different American schools, officials at Gilbert school were open to accept her uniform.

Accepting the girl in his team, Gerry Hicks, who has been coaching basketball for three decades, tried to help the young girl in finding a safer hijab.

Hicks remembered reading last summer about Saudi Arabia's Olympic team, which for the first time had women participants.

"We thought back to the Olympics and decided there had to be something," he recalled.

The coach surfed the Internet until he found a hijab that was lightweight, intended for sports use and less of a safety risk.

Another barrier was to get exception for the girl's hijab from Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) which follows National Federation of High Schools and allow players to wear head gear in basketball for medical or religious reasons.

Asking for an exception, Gilbert school's request was approved from CIAC.

"We don't believe we've ever turned down one down," said Joel Cookson, the CIAC director of media relations.

Hijab was not, however, welcomed in all schools.

In Hagerstown,Maryland, a player was kept out of a middle school game in 2011 for one half when the referee ruled the hijab was a safety hazard.

Islam sees hijab as an obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying one’s affiliations.

Hard Worker

Moving from Yemen, where there is no organized basketball for girls, Alahwas wanted to seize the moment to advance and offer a role model for Muslim girls.

"Here we have a coach to teach us how to play," Alahwas, who has been playing basketball since she was 11, said.

"There, it's just (playing) with friends, no coach."

She knows hijab would never pose as a hindrance for her.

For example, Bilqis Abdul-Qaadin, of Springfield, Mass., broke former UConn great Rebecca Lobo's high school career scoring record in Massachusetts, finishing with 3,070 points three years ago.

The veiled Muslim basketballer now plays at the University of Memphis.

Her coach also trusts her ability to advance quickly.

"She has no real knowledge of the game, no real skills like girls who have played longer, but that all comes with time," said Hicks, who noted Alahwas is quite fast and quick.

"She participates in everything, does all the drills. There's nothing that holds her back," he continued.

"I think it's been good for the other girls to have someone of another faith on the team.

“It's good for the fans, who root for her to score. You don't see this much around the league. It's been a good experience."

Original Posting: http://www.onislam.net/english/news/americas/461626-veiled-basketballer-finds-support-in-us.html

Tabb basketball player Yasmeen Amer wears her faith with pride on court

Tabb's Yasmeen Amer (Kaitlin McKeown, Daily Press / February 2, 2012)

By Marty O'Brien, mobrien@dailypress.com | 757-247-4963

YORK —— 

There were times after Yasmeen Amer began wearing a hijab that she felt conflicted and even self-conscious. She wondered how her Tabb High classmates would react to the scarf and attire traditionally worn by practicing Muslim women as a form of modesty.

And, as a typical teenager, she was anxious for her peers to admire her hair and fashion sense. As her faith and self-assurance has grown, Yasmeen has packed those concerns away with her baby dolls.

"At first I didn't want to do it, but it grew on me," said Yasmeen, a Tabb sophomore, of wearing a hijab. "I cared about what my friends would think and whether I'd lose my friends.

"Then I came to realize, 'You know what? They're not my friends if they don't accept me as who I am.' "

Yasmeen is very much accepted by her teammates on the Tabb High junior varsity girls basketball team. For one thing, she is an excellent defender although she's playing basketball for the first time.

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What they love most about her is her bubbly personality and boundless enthusiasm. The preconception some Americans have that Muslim women are shy because of their covering does not come close to fitting Yasmeen.

"Yasmeen has a very, very positive attitude," Tabb JV girls coach Megan Stangroom said. "One game she wasn't here, and it was so quiet without her high energy, clapping and positivity around.

"I love to put her out there when we need to get some sort of tempo on defense. Then all the sudden we're playing with more intensity, because when one person steps up, everybody wants to."

Said Laura Barber, a Tabb guard, "She's a very energetic girl. She's always the one pumping us up before and after games."

Yasmeen went out for the JV basketball team this season because Barber and Tabb varsity player Brooke Mahan convinced her she could be good at it. Yameen's attitude was typically sunny.

"I thought, 'Why not? What's going to stop me?' " she said.

Positive attitude not withstanding, basketball is not easy to master when you begin nearing your 16th birthday. So Yasmeen immediately gravitated toward the part of the game you can become good at quickly with hustle and enthusiasm: defense. She is working hard to become a better shooter, passer and dribbler.

"I'll look at a move a girl just did and tell myself, 'I'm going home and practice that so I can be just as good as she is,' " Yasmeen said. "I've always picked up sports pretty quickly for some reason.

"Soccer is my main sport, so I'm a fast runner."

Yasmeen started for Tabb last week in a win over Bruton. Her athleticism was apparent in the several steals and rebounds she had, although she did not score.

She stood out in another way: In addition to covering her hair, Yasmeen wore a long-sleeved white shirt under her jersey and black leggings beneath her shorts, because Muslim females who wear hijab must also cover their skin. Because she wears yoga pants under her shorts in practice, her teammates have nicknamed her "Yasercize."

Yasmeen, the consummate teammate, accepts the moniker with a smile.

"I love to cheer my team on and I love every single person on it," she said. "They're like my inspiration and I want to do everything I can to encourage them."

Some, she senses, are not so accepting of her attire or the Muslim faith it represents. She has learned not to take the occasional double-takes to heart.

"Honestly, you always get those looks, whispers and stares," she said. "You just take it, brush it off and say, 'That's just who I am.'

"As I became stronger in my religion and matured, it didn't matter what people thought of me. It's between me and God.

"My faith guides me and helps me with decisions I need to make. If I question something, I go and repent to God and ask him for advice, and he's always there."

Yasmeen, whose parents emigrated to the United States from Egypt in the early 1970s, prays five times a day. She leans on prayer most when she's stressed out about school.

She's doing very well academically, with a 4.1 grade point average and ambitions of becoming an anesthesiologist. She balances religious devotion and studying with basketball, soccer and lots of time for her friends.

Yasmeen fits in perfectly with her teammates and friends, even if her attire sets her apart. So her days of feeling self-conscious about wearing a hijab appear to be permanently behind her.

"I can do whatever I want, as a normal American teenager does, but with my scarf," Yasmeen said. "I love to hang out with my friends, play sports and go to movies.

"It doesn't hold me back from anything."
Source: http://www.dailypress.com/sports/highschool/dp-spt-tabbjvgirl-0205-20120204,0,7590622.story

Coaching women's basketball in Qatar

WHAT WOMEN REALLY THINK ABOUT NEWS, POLITICS, AND CULTURE.
Coaching Women’s Basketball in Qatar

Most of them had never even dribbled before—but soon they were boxing out like Dennis Rodman. By Clare Malone|Posted Monday, Dec. 19, 2011, at 11:30 AM ET


The arc of my basketball career began rooted in one Abrahamic faith and over the years, in a cosmic curveball found itself inextricably linked with another. It was a Hail Mary-to-hijabs experience that went Midwest to Mideast.

My first layups were practiced in the St. Dominic School café-gym-atorium under the watchful eye of God, the Communion of Saints and Mr. Sweeney, a gruff middle-aged dad who sounded like he’d swallowed gravel and Mae West. He called 8-year-old-girls “schmucks” and favored suicides over pep talks. As a result, we were unstoppable. For five glorious years we reigned as Catholic Youth Organization champs for the East Side of Cleveland, no small feat; along with the Kennedy family and novelty boxing nun dolls, American Catholics are most proud of the fierce athleticism of their youth leagues. By the time I dropped basketball in eighth grade for what would become other serious athletic pursuits, I was hardwired for competition.

Armed with this belief in the liberating power of athletics, I marched into coachdom when I moved to Doha, Qatar, after college to work for an American university. Despite the prevailing local notion that women should confine themselves to the domestic sphere, the university had women’s basketball—part of the American college experience we were serving up for our predominantly Middle Eastern students. I volunteered to coach in September, and was excited to find a little bit of home in sports. To be part of a team again. To wear really slick suits to games, Rick Pitino-style. After years of furtive competition with fellow gym-goers on adjacent treadmills, I would regain a valid competitive outlet. In short, I was in it to win it.

What struck me about my first open practice in Doha was the sheer amount of hair. During school hours, when they were surrounded by men, many of the girls, practicing Muslims, wore hijabs, abayas, and stylish combinations of turtlenecks and flowing fabrics. Here, they’d literally let their hair down. All our practices were conducted with the door barred and a sign proclaiming “ladies only,” so that the privacy of girls whose religiosity prohibited men to see their bare head, legs, or arms would be protected. There was a lot of giddiness that first practice, partially due to the shorts and ponytail freedom, but also because, much to my alarm, a good number of them appeared to have never dribbled a ball. Nor had many ever run a lap. For many women in the region, exercise—let alone athletic competition—just isn’t a part of everyday life. Most of these waifish girls had the cardiovascular capabilities of hard-living 65-year-old teamsters. Whipping them into shape was going to be more difficult than I’d imagined.

My first dictum as coach was to initiate conditioning practices. I began the first session with the proclamation that we were going to go on a jog around campus, but some of the girls who wore hijab either didn’t have the proper clothing or were uncomfortable with the idea of an outdoor trot—I had only to think back to the catcalls of suburban lawn crews ogling hordes of high school field hockey players to understand this instinct. I learned to draw up an alternative indoor workout plan. Those willing to brave the desert heat and bewildered stares from passers-by I led on Indian runs and agilities, tearing up the sole green space on campus, a meticulously watered patch of grass in a sea of beige buildings and sand.
For the first couple of weeks, I tried to play elementary school gym teacher—I was there to push them, but gently. I had to demonstrate what high-knees running and the grapevine looked like. I tried to make them stretch as a team, counting in unison, the way American youth athletes do almost by instinct, but often ended up as the only voice by the time we reached “five.”

I tired of the Montessori act after the second week and got tough. The girls would feel real pain, dammit, and that pain would be suicides. I had a whistle and everything. Their first time up and down the court there was laughter and jogging, slight amusement at coach’s newest practice element. (I was only a couple years older than many of my charges, and a favorite topic of conversation between drills were their plans to set me up with a nice Muslim boy.) But by the end of the third round, the doubled-over panting of my players brought joy to my cold, cold heart. Now we were getting somewhere.

It was an uphill slog throughout the fall and early winter. They would tell me that they couldn’t run because they had their periods, and that they couldn’t make practice because of an impending paper. As someone who had both menstruated and been assigned homework while also playing a college sport, I was less than amused. There were also the family-imposed curfews to contend with, which prevented certain girls from making late practices, or weekend obligations with aunts and uncles that they just couldn’t get out of.
I sometimes wished that my girls had the discipline and experience of the players we came up against at the American expat high schools in the region, the freakishly tall, blonde Anabaptist beasts, offspring of Texas oil elite and pathologically wholesome Canadians who played with assurance and panache. I‘m certain that their coaches never had to explain that using your derriere to box someone out underneath the basket is not immodest or in the least way sexual. But I came to realize that it was the sheltered lifestyle of so many women in the region that kept some of the girls from pushing themselves. Sure, there’s the overt stuff that we see all over the news in the West—women covered head-to-toe in stifling black fabric and their supposed inability to operate motor vehicles. But in Qatar, people were constantly getting upset over the more subtle corrosion of “traditional values.” These usually have something to do with women and the things they’re allowed to do—like, say, play sports seriously. It’s as if traditionalists fear the entire country is going to erupt into one big ladies’ night if they’re not careful—all short skirts and tippling cosmos and marrying for love.

Cultural circumstances weren’t the only thing holding my players back either. Their personal travails were often quite serious. My big recruiting campaign was to convince a girl, who was worried about schoolwork and her husband who was stuck in Yemen, to join the team. And unlike typical American college students, she faced the additional pressure of keeping up with day-to-day family obligations in Qatar. Basketball ended up serving as an outlet of sorts for her, an hour or two of relief from the stresses that crowded the rest of her life.

Lebanon’s women bring in 3 gold medals

Lebanon’s women bring in 3 gold medals

December 20, 2011 02:47 AMBy Kenny Laurie

The Daily Star

BEIRUT: Lebanese sport had its most productive day yet at the Arab Games in Doha Monday with Lebanon collecting three gold medals, all of which were won by female athletes.
Lebanon’s women’s basketball team showed up their male counterparts by clinching the gold medal at the Arab Games with a 72-34 win over hosts Qatar while Gretta Taslakian won the women’s 200-meter race and Katya Bachrouche clinched her second gold medal of the games in the 400-meter freestyle.
While the women’s team managed to go through the entire championship unbeaten, Lebanon’s men have slumped to two abysmal defeats, as well as suffering the embarrassment of revoking center Sam Hoskin’s citizenship for having once played basketball in Israel. Even more embarrassingly, the Sports and Youth Ministry admitted that it knew about Hoskin’s previous appearances in Israel but chose to cover up the detail. The women’s side, however, restored some much-needed credibility to the federation thanks to the sublime performances throughout the Arab Games.
As if to highlight Lebanon’s domination and philosophy, not one single player scored in double figures against Qatar, as the team instead shared the ball, resulting in only two players on the 15-woman roster failing to score. The team managed to create 22 assists in a blinding performance of team basketball. Rebecca Akl once again set the tone for Lebanon, handing out seven assists and troubling Qatar on the defensive end with five steals.
Taslakian’s gold medal will have gone some way toward atoning for her disappointing silver medal in the 100-meter race last week. The Lebanese athlete clocked a time of 24:10, two tenths of a second slower than her personal best and national record. Taslakian has now won three of the last four gold medals available to her in the Arab Games.
Bachrouche’s second gold medal marks the swimmer’s place as the nation’s most successful athlete at the games, having won the 400-meter butterfly race Saturday. The swimmer clocked a time of 4:15.24 to win gold.
Despite the slew of wins, Lebanon still sits in 13th place in the overall medal table with 18 medals, including four golds, four silvers and 10 bronze medals. Egypt still sit at the top of the table with more than double the medals (168) of second placed Tunisia (83).

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on December 20, 2011, on page 15.

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Sports/Basketball/2011/Dec-19/157342-lebanons-women-bring-in-3-gold-medals.ashx#ixzz1hGEtPxtQ
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

Dr Samaya Farooq on BBC 4: Muslim Women's Basketball and Globalisation

Dr. Samaya Farooq from University of Gloucestershire tells Laurie Taylor on her new study of Muslim sports women who combine faith and fitness. In the program called "Thinking Allowed", Laurie Taylor explores the latest research into how society works and discusses current ideas on how we live today. Prof. Henrietta Moore from University of Cambridge contributes to the program with a positive take on globalization.
Source: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/ta/ta_20111026-1712a.mp3

Death Threats Fail to Stop Women’s Basketball

By Shafi’i Mohyaddin Abokar

MOGADISHU, Oct 18, 2011 (IPS) - When Al-Shabaab militants called the Somali national women’s basketball team captain, Suweys Ali Jama, and told her she had two options: to be killed or to stop playing basketball, she decided that neither was really an option at all.

"I will only die when my life runs out – no one can kill me but Allah … I will never stop my profession while I am still alive," Jama told IPS.

"Now, I am a player, but even if I retire I hope to be a coach - I will stop basketball only when I perish," Jama said.

The Al-Qaeda-linked military group controls large parts of Somalia and occupied almost half of the country’s capital, Mogadishu, until its surprise withdrawal on Aug. 6. However, the group’s presence in the city remains as Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for an attack on the capital on Oct. 4, which killed at least 70 people.

Now Jama and members of her team have received death threats from the Islamic militant group, which views women’s participation in sport as "un-Islamic".

In August 2006 the Somali Islamic Courts Union (ICU), a group of Sharia courts, issued an order banning Somali women from playing sport calling it the "heritage of old Christian cultures." At the time the ICU controlled Mogadishu, but lost control of the city in December 2006.

Al-Shabaab, which was the armed wing of the ICU, has not altered their stance on women playing sport.

Aisha Mohamed, the deputy captain of the national women’s basketball team, said the militants also threatened her.

"‘You are twice guilty. First, you are a woman and you are playing sports, which the Islamic rule has banned. Second, you are representing the military club who are puppets for the infidels. So we are targeting you wherever you are,’ Islamists warned me during phone calls. But I am still clinging to my profession," Mohamed told IPS.

Mohamed is one of the prominent national team members who belong to the Somali military sports club, Horseed. Mohamed’s mother is a former member of the women’s national team and she has been playing the sport since she was a child.

Basketball is the second-most popular sport in Somalia after football and, aside from handball, is the only other sport that Somali women play. However, women earn meager salaries as professional basketball players.

"I am a human being and I fear, but I know that only Allah can kill me," 21-year-old Mohamed said echoing Jama’s sentiments.

So the team is training for December’s Arab Games in Qatar inside the safety of the bullet-ridden walls of the Somali police academy’s basketball court.

On a day with a clear blue sky overhead the women, dressed in loose fitting tracksuits and T-shirts and wearing headscarves, sprint from one end of the court to another amid the presence of hundreds of policemen.

When they are done they line up to take shots at the basketball hoop. All week they train for two hours a day here and only take off on Thursdays and Fridays – the Muslim weekend.

In the evening when the women leave the safety of the training base they swap their training gear for the anonymity of the traditional Islamic dress and veil. They also wear a Yashmak, a small piece of cloth to cover their faces.

Somalia’s first women’s national basketball team was formed in 1970 and participated in African and regional competitions over the years despite never winning a tournament, according to the National Olympic Committee President Aden Hajji Yeberow.

But the 2006 ban on women playing sports halted the growth of women’s basketball in this East African nation said Somali Basketball Federation Deputy Secretary-General Abdi Abdulle Ahmed.

"The Islamist ban led to some women (quitting the sport), because of fear," Ahmed told IPS.

President of the Somali Basketball Federation Hussein Ibrahim Ali said that whenever women’s involvement in basketball grows, something occurs to set the sport back.

The 2006 Islamist ban, which lead to nearly two hundred women quitting the sport because of fear of reprisals, was one such incident. The two decades of civil war in the country, was another. Since mid- July a severe drought has affected the country, with famine declared in regions of southern Somalia.

Ali added that lack of sponsorship and insecurity were the biggest killers of sport in Somalia.

"So when the world knows that Somalia has undergone such hardships and our women are playing in an international tournament, this would really be great publicity for the whole country and, in particular, for the basketball federation," Ali said.

The women’s coach Ali Sheik Muktar said that he is hopeful that his team will be successful in the upcoming Arab Games.

"To have a women’s team means a lot to Somalia," Ali said.
Source: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=105501

Documentary on Iraqi women's basketball team: SALAAM DUNK!

STORY: Two years ago, most of the women on the basketball team at the American University of Iraq - Sulaimani (AUIS) had never been running before. Many had never played sports. None had ever been on a team with other women. They came from all corners of Iraq to attend this prestigious school, but many cannot tell family back home they go to an "American" university.

Through traditional interviews and private confessional video diaries, Salaam Dunk follows the ethnically diverse AUIS women's basketball team as they discover what it means to be athletes. From the joy of their first win to the pain of losing the coach who started their team, the film gives a glimpse into an Iraq we don't see on the news.

CREW: 

DAVID FINE - director: David has worked in the film and television industry in a variety of disciplines (Camera Operator, Editor, Post Production Supervisor). After co-founding Seedwell, David has been directing the company's viral & commercial work. He loves shooting documentaries and pulling down rebounds. Salaam Dunk is David's first feature film. 

SAN SARAVAN - director of photography: San is a Kurdish-Iraqi filmmaker who has been involved in productions throughout Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Most recently, San worked as a Producer/Director for the Institute for War & Peace Reporting. He speaks Kurdish, Arabic and English, plus a bit of Farsi, Turcoman and Turkish. San's 15 year filmmaking career has taken him to every corner of Iraq.

BILL WEBER- supervising editor Bill has edited multiple documentaries for HBO including The Final Inch , one of five Oscar nominees for Best Documentary Short in 2009. Weber edited and co-directed The Cockettes, which premiered at Sundance and Berlin in 2002 and won the LA Film Critics Documentary of the Year. Most recently, Bill edited and co-directed We Were Here, another official selection at Sundance and Berlin in 2011.

Source: http://salaamdunkfilm.com/

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Camden Panthers crowned champions of first ladies only Basketball league

By Ayesha Abdeen

The first season of the MWSF Exclusively Women’s Basketball League (EWBL) concluded on July 2 with the Camden Panthers crowned 2011 champions.

The five month competition which began in March this year is the first basketball league in the UK to take place in a completely female environment with female players, coaches, officials and spectators.

Organised by the Muslim Women’s Sport Foundation (MWSF), fifty women from six teams across London gathered on the first Saturday of every month in Wembley, North West London, to compete in monthly fixtures.

League Co-ordinator, Lily Frederick, said, “The EWBL has opened the world of competitive basketball to women who for whatever reason cannot access mainstream leagues. For many this is their first and only opportunity to participate in regular organised competition.”

Throughout the league the competition was exciting. From the first game to the last, each team played hard and put every effort into their fixtures. Spectators cheered and jeered, tempers flared...occasionally, referee decisions were called into question but overall the league was played in high spirits and good sports(wo)manship!

League champions, the Camden Panthers, showed their dominance from the very beginning winning every game with emphatic style. Ealing Phoenicians pipped Elite Youth to second place on points difference and the London Lionesses, a deaf basketball team, managed to squeeze past MWSF Ravens on the last day of fixtures, again on points difference to take forth place. MWSF Heat came in sixth.

Panthers team member, Natalie Payne, commented, “It has been a great opportunity for our players to meet other players and forge new friendships. We are extremely proud to have won the league this year and we will certainly be playing in the EWBL again next year. We are grateful to MWSF for organising the competition and only wish there could be more of such tournaments.”

For further information about the EWBL and other activities organised by the Muslim Women’s Sports Foundation visit www.mwsf.org.uk or call 020 8427 0873.

Source: http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/paper/index.php?article=5410

Turkey swamp France, ascends finals in EuroBasket championship

Turkish women qualified to final in the 33rd FIBA European Basketball Championship under way in Poland on Friday, by beating last year’s champion France.

The Turks earned the ticket to the finals of the competition during a semi-final match with France, which they beat by 68-62 in overtime. This is the first time Turkish women's basketball team qualifies to the final. Turkey will take on Russia on Sunday to crown its championship. The final game will begin at 9:30 p.m. Turkish local time. Turkish President Abdullah Gül send a congratulatory letter to Basketball Federation President Turgay Demirel and said he is sure that Turkish women will bring the championship to Russia. Source:  http://www.todayszaman.com/news-249218-turkey-swamp-france-ascends-finals-in-eurobasket-championship.html

Headscarf safety concerns force Maheen Haq to miss 1st half in US

The Associated Press (CP)

HAGERSTOWN, Md. — A 12-year-old Muslim girl in Maryland was forced to sit out the first half of a basketball game by a referee who said her headscarf posed a safety risk.

Seventh-grader Maheen Haq of Hagerstown was allowed to play the second half wearing the hijab after a league administrator granted her a religious exemption.

Daphnie V. Campbell says the girl's parents will have to provide a letter stating that the headscarf is part of their daughter's religion and accept liability for any injuries. She defended the referee's action.

A spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Ibrahim Hooper, said there are hijabs with tear-away strips designed for sports that the girl could wear. He said cases like these can usually be solved with cooperation from both sides.

Related Article by TIM PERSINKO

Title: "Student Wearing Headscarf Held From Game

A seventh grade student was held out for a portion of a girls' basketball league game because she was wearing a headscarf.

After a discussion, the young woman was allowed to reenter the second half of a Mid-Maryland Girls Jr. Basketball Association game on Saturday.

The teenager, whose name league officials would not disclose, was playing for the Smithsburg team in Mount Airy.  Teams in the league are not directly affiliated with public schools, but the rosters are made based on middle school sending districts.

The young woman was wearing a Muslim headscarf called a hijab, theFrederick News-Post reported. 

Before the game began, a referee ruled that the headscarf presented a potential injury risk and barred the girl from entering the game.  The parents of the young woman contacted a league official, Jim Shannon, about the decision.

"It's a safety issue," Shannon said, who makes the league's schedule and acts as a liaison with the referees.  "The league plays the high school rules, and the referee just quoted the rules."

Shannon said that he called the referee during halftime and asked for an exemption to be made for the young player.  Shannon said that the girl had played other games earlier in the season wearing the headscarf without incident, but this was the first game the team had played where Carroll County officials were officiating the game.

"These aren't high school kids, they aren't reaching up and dunking, and kids aren't trying to pull them down," Shannon said.  When the girl's parents signed off on the potential safety risk of playing with the hijab, the referee allowed her to play in the second half.

"Nobody wants to step into the discrimination trap," Shannon said, "and that is truly not the issue."

The league was writing an exemption into their bylaws to address situations like this going forward, and were planning on spreading the word through their website.

Another adult who was not the girl's parent had an angry confrontation with the referee after the game.  The Girls Jr. Basketball Association asked that any parents who have problems with officiating direct their complaints to the league, not the refs.

Institutions around the region have made extra efforts to accommodate religious beliefs in athletic venues.  Last fall, George Washington University instituted a special swim session for Muslim women, when a drape would be hung to cover a glass door to the pool.

Source: http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local-beat/DC-Student-Wearing-Headscarf-Held-from-Game-114133709.html

Muslim headscarf remains a headache for sport -by Jessica Dacey

A year after putting her competitive basketball career on hold over a headscarf ban, a Muslim player is considering taking her case to Switzerland’s top court.

Sura Al-Shawk, a Swiss citizen of Iraqi origin, appealed her regional league’s ban in September 2009 and her case has rumbled on ever since. It is still nowhere near to being resolved, according to her lawyer Daniel Vischer.

The 20-year-old player for national B-league STV Luzern has been unable to take part in games since being told by ProBasket, the northeastern regional basketball association, that she had to remove her headscarf or stop competing. 

ProBasket said the sport had to be religiously neutral and wearing a headscarf during play could increase the risk of injury. The association said it was just following International Basketball Federation (Fiba) rules, whereby religious symbols are banned during official games. 

Al-Shawk took the case to a Lucerne local court in January – and lost. The court said in a ruling that the ban didn’t breach her rights as a player.

Her lawyer is considering taking an appeal to the Federal Court in order to establish whether “her individual rights have been infringed”.

But before that can happen, all ProBasket’s necessary internal legal procedures have to be followed.

“Hot potato”

Earlier this month, Vischer filed a new appeal with ProBasket to allow Al-Shawk to play with her headscarf.

It follows months of the issue going back and forth between ProBasket and Swiss Basketball, the national basketball federation, “like a hot potato”, says Vischer. 

It started when Vischer’s appeal with ProBasket last September was rejected. He then filed a motion to dismiss the proceedings for procedural reasons but it was turned down. After the case went to the Lucerne court, it was referred to the national federation, who in turn said it was a regional matter and it landed back in ProBasket’s lap. 

“We’re back at the beginning,” said Vischer, noting that the next step will be to appeal through ProBasket’s appeal committee, and failing that, the Federal Tribunal. 

“I can’t go to a state court until all the available avenues have been explored through the basketball association’s legal instances. I want to take it to court because I don’t have any hope that the basketball association will say yes.”

Taking responsibility

ProBasket appears to have finally had enough of the case and wrote on October 12 to the Swiss basketball federation president, Stefan Schibler. 

swissinfo.ch obtained a copy of the letter, headed “Sura Al-Shawk – cooperation and support”, in which ProBasket complains of having to “deal with the headscarf issue for almost 18 months now and it seems there is no end in sight”.

ProBasket goes on to say that the Swiss basketball federation is responsible for enforcing Fiba rules among national and regional teams, in collaboration with the national and regional leagues. “Swiss Basketball can’t pass responsibility onto its members, who are in fact then left to face the music.”

It asks Swiss Basketball to take over full responsibility for the case with immediate effect until a mutual solution is found.

Individual right

The Swiss national league told swissinfo.ch on Thursday that it still was not up to them to take a position on this question as it involved a player in a regional league. 

Swiss Basketball director François Stempfel was reported in the Bund newspaper as saying: “Since October 2009, we have pointed out to Mr Vischer more than once that this is a matter that should be dealt with by ProBasket.” He also noted that the case had gone through a civil court and been rejected. 

Fiba has already said that making an exception would open the floodgates to other requests. But Vischer is unmoved. 

“I say the right to play with a veil is an individual right of Ms Al-Shawk,” Vischer told swissinfo.ch. 

“This is very tiring for her. She feels really, really terrible. She wants to play but she can’t. But she hasn’t lost hope.”

Jessica Dacey, swissinfo.ch 

Turkey Hungry For First Women's Medal in Basketball

Turkey may have won all three first round games at the U20 European Championship for Women, but Friday's quarter-finals is all that matters for Turkish coach Aziz Akkaya.

Turkey lost in the quarters of the past two U20 women events after finishing fourth in 2007. And Akkaya desperately wants to lead Turkey to their first ever women's European medal - senior or youth competition.

"I really hope that we can reach the last eight. It doesn't matter if we win these three (first round) games. The main day is Friday. That's what's important to us," said Akkaya after Turkey's exciting victory over Lithuania on Saturday.

The come-back victory over Lithuania gives Turkey a 2-0 record heading into the qualifying round starting on Monday with up-coming games against Italy, Serbia and Spain. One victory could be enough to get Akkaya's women back into the quarters.

"This time we want to win in the quarter-finals," said Akkaya.

The closest Turkey have come to a medal in women's youth tournaments was fourth place at the U20 women in 2007 and 2000 and the U16 women in 2005.

"We are on a quest for our first women's Euro medal. We really hope to finally win a medal at a tournament. This is very important for us," said Tugce Canitez, who scored 29 points against Lithuania including the game-winning three-point play with 7.4 seconds left.

"Beating Lithuania is a big step for us."

Canitez said Turkey must continue to play great defense and have a strong team spirit if they want to reach the final eight.

"Serbia and Spain are very good teams and it will be a great challenge for us," said the 19-year-old Canitez, who leads the team in scoring, rebounding, steals and blocks.

The power forward's 18.7 points per game rank her third in the tournament while she leads all players with 14.0 rebounds a contest.

And Canitez will very soon also play a crucial role in the Turkey senior team, according to Akkaya.

The coach said the Turkish federation is trying to get Canitez to play for the senior national team for the EuroBasket Women qualification this summer when Turkey will take on Finland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Montenegro in Group C.

Canitez however is due to head back to the United States in August as she returns to North Idaho College for her sophomore season. The Konak native is hoping to transfer to a bigger university after next season and needs extra help for her grades, Akkaya said.

The coach said Canitez - and Turkish women's basketball - would be better served if she came back to Turkey.

"It's her decision to go to play in the United States but I told her she should play in turkey. In the U.S., she may be stronger but fundamentally I am sure that Europe is better than the United States," said Akkaya.

"So I think she needs to come back and play here. We need her for our senior team and Turkish women's basketball needs her."

He added: "She will be an important player for us for a long time.

Canitez could eventually help Turkey to their first women's youth medal and women's senior team medal.

Source: http://fiba.clients.starcut.com/inf/infomo?site=FIBA_Europe&view=newsdetails&feed:a=news&feed:c=news_europe&feed:i=BEC71C60F169996D96261E148DFA59E3