Malaysian Nur Suryani Mohamed Taibi: The only pregnant Olympian

By Patrick JOHNSTON

KUALA LUMPUR, April 13 (Reuters) - When Malaysian shooter Nur Suryani Mohamed Taibi takes aim with her rifle at the London Olympics it will not just be nerves she will be attempting to control inside her.

The 29-year-old from Perak, situated 200 kilometres north of Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur, is due to give birth to her first child on Sept. 2, less than a month after the Games end.

"I will talk to the baby before I compete... 'no kicking, stay calm for one hour and 15 minutes only please'", Suryani told Reuters in an interview at her home shooting range in Kuala Lumpur.

"When I go to London, I will be 33 weeks, when I come back it will be 34 weeks.

"They (Malaysian National Olympic Committee) wanted to send me to London early because they are afraid, but what I hear from Malaysian airlines is that it is not recommended to travel for a pregnant woman from 35 weeks.

"I arrive around July 25th and I finish and come straight back, I won't be staying there very long. I don't think (I'll be attending the closing ceremony), we haven't planned anything."

While the sight of her swelling stomach on the range at the Royal Artillery Barracks in east London is likely to make her the most conspicuous of the 390 shooting competitors at the Games, there have been doubts from the Malaysian public about whether she should travel.

While shooting is not too physically taxing, the mental stress and pressure of Olympic competition are sure to have an effect on the her in the heat of battle.

Suryani said her family's health was imperative.

"They are thinking 'can you do that, can you do that'? I say 'no problem' because when you have some living things inside your stomach everywhere you go, you have company. You don't feel lonely, when I'm pregnant I don't have problems, I enjoy it.

"My aim is to compete. Maybe, at the end of June or whatsoever, if I have some problem that would jeopardise the baby inside me, I will reconsider whether I am going or not.

"But I feel I am strong and my husband says 'as long as you feel like that, energized to do that, it seems like that is your baby talking to you so you go'.

"The doctors say I am very good and very fit and it is OK for me to train up to eight months or nine months."

If, as planed, she does go, Suryani will not be there to just make up the numbers.

OVERCOMING STEREOTYPES

The tall markswoman won a bronze medal at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou and she also claimed gold weeks earlier at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, partnering Nur Ayuni Farhana Halim for the air rifle pairs.

In November, she won two gold medals in the Southeast Asian Games in the 10 metre air rifle and 50m rifle three position.

She achieved the Olympic qualifying marks in both disciplines in January at the Asian Champions in Qatar, days after finding out she was to become a mum, but her pregnancy will limit her to just the 10m event.

"Yeah, I cannot do a prone position with this big stomach," she laughs, amid the deafening noise as guns fire at the Subang Shooting Range situated at the end of a long, dusty lane near the domestic airport south of the capital.

"At first yes, I was disappointed not to compete in that one (three position) but when I think back, this is still a great opportunity."

Her determined, positive attitude is engaging and was essential in helping her overcome the stereotype in Malaysia that shooting is a man's sport.

"I said, 'whoa! it's like a man's job'," she remarks of the time when as a 15-year-old schoolgirl, her dad invited her to the shooting range for the first time.

"But I like a rough job like that, not something girlie or feminine, I don't like those types of sports so I tried and its been ok."

She hopes that her participation in London will help boost the profile of the sport among Malaysian women, but is she dreaming of becoming Malaysia's first Olympic gold medallist?

"Oh, I don't think about that yet," she added modestly.

"Anyhow, maybe they will say this is unfair because two persons shoot for one gold," she laughed, pointing to her bulge.

(Editing by Amlan Chakraborty/John O'Brien)

Source: http://london-games.reuters.com/london-olympics-2012/articles/shooting/2012/06/22/pregnant-malaysian-shooter-keen-deliver-london

Higlight: Fatima Sulaiman Dahman from Yemen

“I am looking forward to competing in the Olympics. Whilst Taiz is perhaps more like the Highlands of Scotland and we have better coffee nearby in the original Mocha, it will be great to be in London and show the world a different side of Yemen.” said Fatima.

• Date of birth: 10/11/1992 (Age 19)
• Born in Taiz
• Height: 1.68m
• Weight: 49kg
• Competes in: Athletics (Women’s 100m)

Source:  http://yemenolympics.wordpress.com/tag/fatima-sulaiman-dahman/ 

Particpations:

•  Participated in the World Championship – Korea 2011.

Highlight: Al-Habsi Shinoona Salah (Oman)

There isn't too enough information on the internet about the only female participant from Oman.

ex	Weight	Height	Date of Birth	Place of birth
W			03/07/1993

Personal Best - Outdoor
	Performance	Wind	Place	Date
100 Metres	12.37	1.2	Budapest	14/07/2012
200 Metres	27.87		Amman	12/04/2008

Progression - Outdoor
	Season	Performance	Wind	Place	Date
100 Metres	2012	12.37	1.2	Budapest	14/07/2012
	2010	14.29	-1.6	Singapore	18/08/2010
200 Metres	2008	27.87		Amman	12/04/2008

Honours
	Rank	Performance			Wind	Place	Date
100 Metres
1st Youth Olympic Games (athletics)		7	h	14.29	-1.6	Singapore	18/08/2010

Saudi female athletes challenge Muslim norms

By Susan Berk
DUBAI: Behind concrete walls and with no men in sight, Saudi women wearing shorts and short-sleeve shirts meet three times a week to play football in an all-female club in Saudi Arabia's port city of Jeddah.

Cheering them on is Jeddah King's United coach and striker Reema Abdullah, who is also leading a campaign in the ultra conservative Muslim country to allow women to participate in sports and compete internationally.

Saudi Arabia has never sent a woman to compete in the Olympics. Human rights groups say the country is violating the International Olympic Committee charter's pledge of equality.

In a report Wednesday, Human Rights Watch called on the IOC to require that Saudi Arabia's participation in the London Olympics be contingent upon the Arab country allowing all girls and women to play competitive sports.

Saudi Arabia's male athletes have so far qualified in several track and field and equestrian events for the London Games. There's a chance male athletes will also qualify in archery and they are hoping for a wild card invitation in shooting.

However, plans to send women to the Olympics remain wrapped in secrecy.

"We will watch the London Olympics and we will cheer for our men competing there, hoping that some day we can root for our women as well," Abdullah told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Jeddah.

"When Saudi women get a chance to compete for their country, they will raise the flag so high," the 33-year-old Abdullah said. "Women can achieve a lot, because we are very talented and we are crazy about sports."

Since Abdullah put together Saudi Arabia's first female football club in Jeddah in 2006, teams have popped up around the country, including in the capital, Riyadh, and in Dammam, the biggest city in the oil-rich eastern province.

In 2008, seven female teams played in the first ever national tournament as part a clandestine and segregated women's league. Abdullah's Jeddah King's United finished first.

Members of the team play not in a stadium but on what Abdullah describes as "a proper size football field with grass that is surrounded by a wall."

The current roster includes 35 women, as young as 13 and up to 35. Outside the segregated premises, the players are wearing long trousers, long-sleeved shirts and specially designed headscarfs to cover their hair, Abdullah said.

What they are doing is illegal, even though there are no written laws in Saudi Arabia that ban and restrict women from participating in sports. The stigma of female athletes is rooted in conservative traditions and religious views that hold giving freedom of movement to women would make them vulnerable to sins.

Saudi women bear the brunt of their nation's deeply conservative values, often finding themselves the target of the unwanted attention of the kingdom's intrusive religious police, who enforce a rigid interpretation of Islamic Shariah law on the streets and public places like shopping malls and university campuses.

"Nobody is saying completely 'no' to us," Abdullah said, adding that only a fraction of Saudia Arabia's female population - attending all-female private schools and universities - is generally tolerated to participate in sports.

"As long as there are no men around and our clothes are properly Islamic, there should be no problem," she said.

But there is a problem and a senior sports official, who said rulers in the kingdom are not opposed to women's participation in sports, described efforts to include more girls and women into sports as "a fight between old and new" attitudes.

"We are supporting women here to be in sports but that means fighting deeply entrenched traditions in Saudi Arabia," the official said in a phone interview Wednesday. "We are trying to overcome them and we are seeking support from the IOC to have a woman in our delegation at the London Games."

The official spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The IOC has previously criticized the Saudis for failing to send women athletes to the Olympics. However, according to Human Rights Watch, the IOC hasn't attached any conditions to the nation's participation in the games.

In Wednesday's report, the New York-based group said that Saudi government restrictions put sports beyond the reach of almost all women in the Gulf nation.

There is no physical education for girls in public schools and no money allocated for women's sports in the country's institutions, including the youth ministry, the Saudi national Olympic committee and Saudi sports federations.

"It's not that Saudi Arabia doesn't have the money to do this or women who want to," said Christoph Wilcke, a senior researcher in Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division who authored the 51-page report titled "Steps of the Devil." ''We have listened to Saudi promises for decades. This is not good enough."

The report's name comes from the comments of some powerful Saudi clerics who oppose sport as "steps of the devil" that would lead women to un-Islamic behavior and moral corruption.

Saudi Arabia's Persian Gulf neighbor, Qatar, and Brunei have also never sent a women to the Olympics. Oil-rich Qatar, which like Saudi Arabia follows a strict version of Islam, has been feverishly working to escape the stigma that comes with failing to include women.

Doha's bid for the 2020 Olympics has added the pressure to include women on Qatar's team in London. The country's sports officials emphasize huge efforts and considerable resources they've invested into changing mindsets that led to Qatari women competing in international tournaments for the past three years, including the 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore.

Very slowly, some changes are also taking place in Saudi Arabia, said Lina Almaeena, a basketball player in Jeddah. Her team, established in 2003, has 16 women. They rent a gym in one of the city's private university for women to play three times a week.

"Five, six years ago women in sports was a taboo," Almaeena said in a phone interview. "Now we are on TV and in the newspapers all the time because the interest is high since there are so many health problems women and the society is facing."

The IOC charter states that sports are a right for everyone and bans discrimination in practicing sports on the basis of gender.

"The IOC strives to ensure the Olympic Games and the Olympic Movement are universal and non-discriminatory, in line with the Olympic Charter and our values of respect, friendship and excellence," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said in a statement.

"NOCs (national Olympic committees) are encouraged to uphold that spirit in their delegations. The IOC does not give ultimatums nor deadlines but rather believes that a lot can be achieved through dialogue."

As a result of talks, Adams said Saudi Arabia included a female equestrian, Dalma Rushdi Malhas, in the country's delegation to the 2010 Youth Olympics. Malhas won a bronze medal in show jumping in Singapore, Saudi Arabia's first ever medal at an Olympic event for a female athlete.

Malhas may be invited to participate in the London Games by the international equestrian federation, and Saudi's national Olympic committee has indicated it won't interfere if she is invited.

Malaysian Olympian Nurul Syafiqah (Archery) has faith in teammates

Bi Fadhli ISHAK

MALAYSIA'S sole woman qualifier Nurul Syafiqah Hashim fancies her teammates' chances of joining her at the Olympics in the recurve team event as they prepare a last-gasp attempt to clinch qualification at the World Cup Stage 3 in Ogden, US which starts next week.

Nurul Syafiqah Hashim is hopeful Amirah Mohamed (left), Shahirah Abdul Halim (centre) and Ng Sui Kim (not in picture) will be able to join her in the recurve team event at the Olympics.

Nurul Syafiqah, who will be competing for a team berth for Malaysia at the event together with Shahirah Abdul Halim, Amirah Mohamed and Ng Sui Kim, said achieving a top-three finish, which ensures qualification, is within reach of the team.

    "They (teammates) are all much more experienced than me and have proven their ability in the past," said the Indonesia Sea Games silver medallist.
    "Coach (Lee Jae-Hyung) has told  us that we need a  total score of 215 and above to have a good chance of making the cut. We have managed to consistently achieve that score, or just slightly below it, during training.
    "All the teams who have qualified (for the Olympics)  will not be in the competition,  so making the top-three will not be as hard as at other competitions.
   "However, teams such as Iran, Iraq, Indonesia and Mongolia are sides that we will have to be wary of if we are to qualify and we cannot afford to be complacent."
    Nurul Syafiqah, who clinched qualification for the individual event at the Asian Championships in Teheran last year, added that having the women's team competing together at the Olympics would be a huge confident boost for her.
    "I am a little inexperienced when it comes to this level of competition and sometimes my nerves do get to me," she added. "It would be a big help if my teammates were there to guide me at the Games as they are more senior than me and will help me to cope better."
    Currently four Malaysians -- Cheng Chu Sian, Khairul Anuar Mohamad, Haziq Kamaruddin together with Nurul Syafiqah -- have qualified for the Olympics.

Source: http://www.nst.com.my/sports/other/archery-nurul-syafiqah-has-faith-in-teammates-1.93866

Qatari sharpshooter will also be the country's flag bearer

By Nahlah Ayed, CBC News 
If it weren't for the high-tech sport rifle cradled in her arms, Bahya al-Hamad would look like your average Qatari girl, with her extraordinarily large, dark and shy eyes, an olive complexion, a slight build, her head covered in black hijab.

But that rifle has set her far apart, catapulting her on to the world stage and into Olympic history.

Twenty-year-old al-Hamad will be one of the first four women ever to represent Qatar at the Olympic Games, the latest version of which begins later this week in London. She will compete in the air rifle competition.

Her journey to the Games began as a child when her father would occasionally take her out hunting with him and let her have a few shots. He noticed early that she was a natural, and encouraged her to hone her skills further.

"I liked the focus, the clothes, to have a rifle for me to practice with, designed for my body," al-Hamad told CBC News.

As a teen she joined a club that accepted female members, and soon she was competing nationally and internationally, bringing home gold medals and inspiring a new generation of Qatari women to embrace sport.

But nothing could have prepared her for the intense interest and scrutiny that comes with being an Olympian.

No more holdouts

For the first time in the history of the Games, every member nation of the International Olympic Committee will be sending at least one woman to participate this year.

Sprinter Noor al-Malki, who will compete in the 100-metre dash is one of four female athletes from Qatar breaking the gender barrier at the London Olympics. (Mohamad Dabbouss / Reuters)

Until now, the last holdouts had been Qatar, Brunei and Saudi Arabia, all Muslim nations with limited sporting opportunities for women.

Islam doesn't prohibit female sports, but in some conservative Muslim countries cultural concerns have left them out of organized activity, the Olympics, and so much more.

Qatar, which has applied to host the 2020 Olympic Games (it will host soccer's World Cup in 2022), is now sending four women to London: a swimmer, a table tennis player, a runner, and al-Hamad.

Women's participation in sport has expanded exponentially in Qatar in recent years — there is now a women's sports federation and organized leagues in a number of sports.

But the decision to allow women to participate at this level and to choose al-Hamad as the country's flag bearer is quite extraordinary and possibly, a turning point for Qatar and its women.

I met al-Hamad recently at a Swiss practice facility just outside Zurich, where she was training for up to five hours a day. The climate there was far more like England's than her tiny home country on the Persian Gulf, where summer temperatures can soar well into the 40s.

She moves carefully and deliberately, a model of composure. She closes her huge eyes, then opens them slowly. After that she doesn't blink again until she lets the shot go.

More often than not, she hits the bull's eye. She doesn't flinch.

"I never imagined I would be the first female athlete [from Qatar] to enter the Olympics," she said, just as composed as when she is shooting.

"People are expecting us to achieve something at the Olympics. I hope we don't disappoint them."

A hand up

Al-Hamad was crushed when earlier this year she missed qualifying for the Olympics by half a point at an Asian championship.

Qatari swimmer Nada Arkaj will also be representing the Gulf state at the London Games. (Mohamad Dabbouss / Reuters)

A month later, she received a phone call, telling her she would be going to the Olympics anyway on a wild card — those Olympic slots awarded to member countries and which can be filled by those who had not qualified through other events.

She was thrilled. But her father wouldn't believe it until it was reported in the papers.

Critics claim this kind of wild-card invitation is damaging to the sport, and to the credibility of the Olympics.

But others maintain that women like al-Hamad deserve a helping hand, not only to advance their own sporting careers but to set an example to women in their home countries.

As for al-Hamad, because of her performance, she believes she deserves to be there.

"This is a dream, it was my dream to be in the Olympics," she says. "My ambition is like any athlete, and that is to take a medal. But if I don't, then it's enough that I participated in this contest and had the chance to meet other Olympic athletes."

The Saudis

Saudi Arabia, the last holdout this year, decided to send two women to the Olympics but only after intense negotiation, and only after critics demanded the IOC ban the Saudis for violating the Olympic charter.

The charter says that the practice of sport is a human right and should be freely available to anyone, without discrimination.

There was much celebration two weeks ago when the news broke, but the announcement has still not satisfied everyone.

Saudi women cannot appear in public uncovered or travel without a male guardian, and its Olympic officials maintain that its female athletes must adhere to those rules at the Games too.

Saudi women athletes must dress according to Sharia law, must travel with their male guardian and must refrain from mixing with unrelated men.

An added complication in this case is that one of the women representing Saudi Arabia is actually an American runner who has a Saudi father, and whose best time is 25 seconds slower than the slowest runner at the Beijing Olympics.

Either that speaks to the lack of options on the part of the Saudis — who have tended to discourage women's sports — or simply to an act of lip service.

"Allowing these two Saudi women to compete in the Olympics is just a gesture to appease the international community," says David Wallechinsky, an Olympic historian.

"It's not like they're suddenly going to open up gyms, women's football teams, (or) soccer clubs in Saudi Arabia."

'Watch and see'

As recently as Sunday, human rights activists were still protesting against what they see as the Saudi's half-measures, when it comes to women and sports.

But the IOC says this year's inclusion of women from all countries is a reason to celebrate. And for Bahya al-Hamad it certainly is.

The young shooter from Qatar says nothing should prevent women from participating in sport — as long as they remain modest. But she isn't keen to discuss what other countries are doing.

She dismissed any suggestion she will be shunned at all when she returns from the Olympics, saying she has always been encouraged to compete.

It may not be as easy for other female athletes, however. Wearing a swimsuit in public is a huge departure for women in strict Muslim countries, and the prospect of women competitors in bathing suits has already drawn criticism in some places.

How these Muslim women perform in the Games may well determine how they're received afterwards.

Should al-Hamad manage to actually win a medal, she will almost certainly become a hero to thousands of women who may not have otherwise thought about aiming for the Olympics.

Her manager, Nawal al-Sulaiti, says she's already become a role model to young women in Qatar and elsewhere in the Muslim world.

Al-Hamad says Qatar and its women have been underestimated. "Watch Qatar, and see what we will accomplish," she says with a wide smile.

An average Qatari girl, perhaps, but one whose name will go down in history.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/07/23/f-vp-ayed-qatar-olympics.html

EL MOUTAWAKEL AND REEDIE ELECTED IOC VPS

AP

Former Olympic hurdles champion Nawal El Moutawakel of Morocco and Britain's Craig Reedie were elected vice presidents of the IOC on Thursday, while the U.S. was again shut out of the ruling body and the son of former President Juan Antonio Samaranch was elevated to the inner circle.

For the first time, three women will serve on the International Olympic Committee's policymaking board.

El Moutawakel and Reedie were both elected unopposed to fill two vacancies for vice president, moving up from their regular positions on the 15-member executive board.

El Moutawakel received 81 votes in favor and 10 against, while Reedie was approved with 85 in favor and four against.

El Moutawakel, who four years ago became the first woman from a Muslim nation voted onto the executive board, now becomes the first to reach the vice presidency.

She was the first woman from a predominantly Muslim nation to win an Olympic medal when she took gold in the 400-meter hurdles at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

''I am deeply honored,'' said El Moutawakel, who heads the IOC's coordination commission for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. ''I will continue to promote the Olympic movement with passion and devotion and energy. You can count on me.''

The Moroccan is the fourth woman to become an IOC vice president.

Also Thursday, former Olympic fencer Claudia Bokel of Germany was elected to the executive board in her role as the new chair of the IOC athletes' commission.

Bokel becomes the third woman on the board, joining El Moutawakel and Sweden's Gunilla Lindberg - the first time three women have been on the ruling body at one time.

Of the IOC's 109 members, 21 are women. The 19.3 percent figure is just below the 20 percent target set by the IOC in 1996 for women's representation in international sports bodies.

Reedie, a former head of the international badminton federation, has been on the IOC board since 2009. He was a key figure in London's winning bid for the 2012 Olympics and his elevation to vice president came just one day before the opening ceremony.

''It's a particular pleasure to be elected to this place in this city, which has taken up so much of my time in recent years,'' Reedie said.

El Moutawakel took the spot previously held by Yu Zaiqing of China, whose term on the board expired. Reedie replaced Italy's Mario Pescante, who resigned after Rome pulled out of bidding for the 2020 Games.

In the day's most eye-catching result, Ireland's Patrick Hickey received 34 ''no'' votes in his unopposed election to the board as new head of the Association of National Olympic Committees. Hickey was elected with 57 votes in favor, but the large number against underlined the continuing rancor that led to the resignation earlier this year of longtime ANOC chief Mario Vasquez Rana of Mexico.

U.S. member Anita DeFrantz and Lebanon's Tony Khoury withdrew as candidates for the executive board at the last minute because they realized their chances were slim.

''I have got more years and I wanted to be certain that I had enough votes to win,'' DeFrantz said. ''This was too uncertain an opportunity.''

It means the U.S. remains without a voice on the Olympics' most powerful body. The U.S. has been without a member on the executive board since Jim Easton left in 2006.

''We will change that,'' DeFrantz told The Associated Press. ''Today was not the day.''

The next chance will be at the IOC session in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in September 2013.

DeFrantz, who ran unsuccessfully for IOC president in 2001, has failed in several attempts to return to the executive board in recent years.

Eleven years after his father stepped down, Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. was elevated to the executive body. After a 45-45 tie vote with Ukrainian pole vault great Sergei Bubka, the Spaniard won 50-40 in a runoff.

Bubka then ran for another seat, defeating Willy Kaltschmitt of Guatemala 51-43. Kaltschmitt returned to win the final seat, beating Nat Indrapana of Thailand 60-36.

C.K. Wu, the Taiwanese president of the international amateur boxing association, was voted onto the board as representative of the summer sports federations with 88 in favor and six against.

Swiss member Rene Fasel, head of the international ice hockey federation, was reappointed to the board as head of the winter sports with 76 in favor and 12 against.

The IOC also elected five new rank-and-file members: former Namibian sprinter Frank Fredericks, who had previously served as an athlete representative on the executive board; Japanese Olympic Committee president Tsunekazu Takeda; former badminton player Li Lingwei of China; Belgian Olympic Committee head Pierre-Olivier Beckers of Belgium; and Aisha Garad Ali, head of the Olympic body in Djibouti.

Source: http://msn.foxsports.com/olympics/story/El-Moutawakel-and-Reedie-elected-IOC-VPs-85671313

Saudi women walk very different paths to become Muslim country's 1st female Olympians

By Barbara SURK

LONDON - The two women who will become the first female athletes to compete for Saudi Arabia at the Olympics have walked very different paths that will meet at the London Games.

One is a distance runner raised in California who has spent little time in Saudi Arabia but hopes to become a "big inspiration" for women in the kingdom, which severely restricts women in public life and effectively bans them from sports.

The other practices judo, but she has hardly ever left Saudi Arabia and has never competed.

While Sarah Attar was running cross-country for her high school in the United States, Wojdan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhani was watching judo on television and listening to her brothers talk about it.

Then one day she told her father, a judo coach and an international referee in the sport, that she wanted to train.

"She said, 'I want to be like you, I want to become very good,'" the father, Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhani, told The Associated Press in an interview. "I said, OK, you want to train? I will coach you at home."

Saudi Arabia is allowing them to compete after the International Olympic Committee and human-rights groups put intense pressure on the kingdom to end its practice of sending all-male teams to the Olympics.

After Qatar and Brunei announced they would send women, Saudi Arabia would have been the only country with no women on the team. Instead, the London Games will be the first in Olympic history in which women are represented in every national delegation.

Women in Saudi Arabia cannot register for sports clubs or league competitions. They are banned from entering national trials, which makes it impossible for them to qualify for international competitions, including the Olympics.

Attar and Shahrkhani were entered earlier this month by the Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee. Neither technically qualified, but they received special invitations from the IOC "based on the quality of the athletes," IOC chief Jacques Rogge said.

Attar, 19, is an art student who holds dual American and Saudi citizenship. Sports was part of her life growing up in Escondido, Calif., but she has not raced competitively since entering Pepperdine University earlier this year.

On her own, she has run the 1,500 meters in 5:30.51 and the 3,000 meters in 11:37.41. At the London Games, she will compete in the women's 800 meters. Heats are Aug. 8, and the final is Aug. 11.

Attar has not been subjected to the restrictions that apply to women in Saudi Arabia. In a photo on the website of her high school team, she appears in shorts and a sleeveless top.

In the kingdom, women can be punished by the religious police for showing their hair in public. They could be imprisoned under Islamic law if they dared slip out of the house in sweatpants and a shirt for a morning jog.

After her inclusion on the Saudi Olympic team, Attar made a statement to the IOC wearing a long-sleeved shirt and trousers, and covered her hair. But she did not ignore the deep cultural differences between the two countries.

"It's a huge honor, and I hope that it can really make some big strides for women over there to get more involved in sport," she said.

Speaking directly to Saudi women, she added: "To any woman who wants to participate, I say `go for it,' and don't let anybody hold you back. We all have potential to get out there and get moving."

Shahrkhani, 18, will compete in the over-78-kilogram category of judo Aug. 3. Aside for occasional two-week sessions with a female coach in Abu Dhabi and a training camp in Egypt, she has trained at her home in the Muslim holy city of Mecca.

"My daughter became very good very fast," her father said. "She has only been training for two years, though, and at the Olympics she will be competing against those who are already champions."

Women in Islamic countries are increasingly taking part in sports competitions. Afghan women box, Pakistanis play cricket, and Emiratis have taken up football and weightlifting. Iran is considered one of the growing powers in women's rugby in Asia.

Qatar, like Saudi Arabia, follows the strictest interpretations of Islam, but Qatar, a tiny Persian Gulf country, long ago pulled ahead of its more powerful neighbor to support and train women in its quest to become a Mideast sporting power.

The Saudi decision to allow women to compete at the London Games is unlikely to have much effect on women in the kingdom.

There are no laws that prohibit women from participating in sports, but there is no gym class for girls in public schools, and no women-only hours at swimming pools. Women do play football and basketball and have underground leagues.

Training in an individual sport like judo adds to Shahrkhani's courage, said her coach, Dilyara Safina.

"Wojdan is very strong, and she has a big heart," said Safina, a national coach in the United Arab Emirates who has trained with Shahrkhani in Abu Dhabi over the past three months

"She might get worried because she has a blue belt and she will be competing against black belts," Safina said. "I hope she gets success at these games in London, because I am sure she can get a medal at the next Olympics."

Shahrkhani's parents and two brothers will be there to support her. To her father, she is already a champion.

"I am so proud to go to London with my daughter, with our country's flag," he said. "My daughter and me, we are going to make history."

Source: http://www.startribune.com/sports/olympics/163723856.html

FEMALE MUSLIM OLYMPIANS SCHEDULE

Muslim Women's Sport Foundation prepared the schedule below for your interest. For the better quality of the schedule, please refer to their website from: http://www.mwsf.org.uk/olympics_london2012.html

 

(Every effort has been made to ensure the information is correct. If errors are noticed please email info@mwsf.org.uk. For the full Olympic schedule  visit www.london2012.com)

Women's Sport in Iran: Pre-Revolution

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This report is the first in a series on the situation of women's sport in Iran to be published by Small Media during the London 2012 Olympics. This piece gives a historical background, describing the status of women's sport in Iran before the 1979 Revolution.

1. "Islamic women’s sport appears to be a contradiction in terms - at least this is what many in the West believe. … In this respect the portrayal of the development and the current situation of women’s sports in Iran is illuminating for a variety of reasons. It demonstrates both the opportunities and the limits of women in a country in which Islam and sport are not contradictions" (Pfister 2003: 207)
2. As the Olympics approaches, and issues of women athletes from Muslim majority countries are splashed across the headlines, Small Media has embarked on a research of the history, structure and representation of women’s sport in Iran. This subject received much coverage in the wake of the disqualification of the Iranian women’s football team from Olympic qualifying under controversial circumstances. However, while there is a wealth of information about women’s sport in Iran after the revolution, there is a dearth on the pre-revolution period.
   
   
   To discuss women’s sporting in Iran without taking into consideration its evolution prior to the revolution, is to look at the present state of women’s sports in a vacuum. As the first in a series of reports on Iranian women’s sporting to be published by Small Media during the London 2012 Olympics, this piece describes the status of women’s sporting before the Iranian Revolution (1979), contextualising our upcoming reports, which explore more contemporary issues.
   
   
   

   Early Sporting in Iran

   Prior to the 1850s, the traditional emphasis on physical fitness and training in Iran was in the context of ‘being fit for war’. The long-held tradition of Iranian wrestling, which was practiced in Zurkhaneh (‘houses of strength’), along with emphases on horse riding and training with clubs, exemplifies this intersection of war and sport (Jahromi 2011; Chehabi 2002).
   
   
   With the increase in travel and international labour migration in the mid-19th century, and the spread of ideas associated with these population movements, modern sport and physical activities began to develop in Iran. However, it was not until the early 20th century when such ideas started being institutionalised by the state. For example, in 1919 Iran’s schools officially adopted the Swedish gymnastics system developed by Pehr Henrik Ling (Jahromi 2011; Chehabi 2002).
   
   
   Although such sports were almost exclusively male-only domains, with the coming of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1926, measures were introduced to include physical activities and education for women and girls. Reza Shah was a ‘moderniser’ (like his contemporary Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in Turkey), and saw European-style physical education and sport as integral to his plan. In 1927, compulsory physical education in schools for both boys and girls was approved by the Majles (Parliament) (Chehabi 2002).

3. The Pahlavi Dynasty and Women’s Sport

   "Under the Shah’s regime, the sporting agenda was Westernisation and sport, and part of the nationalistic agenda focused on elite performers and international competitions in mixed-sex environments" (Jahromi 2011: 114)

   
   
   In 1934, Reza Shah declared the mandatory unveiling of women, and in 1935 established the state-sponsored Ladies’ Centre (Kanun-e Banovan), which became one of the main organisations pursuing women’s sport. However, as Leila Mouri and Kristin Soraya Batmanghelichi point out in their forthcoming article “Ex-sporting the Hejab: Reflections on the Discourse of Compulsory Hejab and Iranian Women’s Soccer” (2012; forthcoming),
   
   
   

   "These projects were mainly limited to the upper strata of society, and thus far women’s sports had not yet become a national pastime and concern. Still, pictures of Iranian female pilots or parachutists and young women’s and school girls’ sports training practices, appeared in Iranian journals and newspapers en masse" 

   
   
   Although conservatives opposed women’s sport and girls’ physical education, as the wearing of sportswear in public violated the Islamic dress code, women from non-devout upper and middle class backgrounds became increasingly involved in a diverse range of sports (Chehabi 2002). With the abdication of Reza Shah in 1941, his son, Mohammed Reza Shah, assumed the throne and continued his father’s modernisation agenda.

   Continue: http://storify.com/smallmedia/iranian-women-s-sports-pre-revolution