Sunday, July 3, 2011

A Sports Organization Gets it Right

You may remember that Atlanta weightlifter and hijabi Kulsoom Abdullah sought a religious exemption to wear a modified uniform to compete in the USA Weightlifting organization's American Open Weightlifting Championship. USA Weightlifting operates under International Weightlifting Federation rules.

USA Weightlifting initially denied her request, but promised to discuss it with the IWF. A few days ago the IWF announced that its changing its rules to accommodate Abdullah.

IWF President Tamas Ajan said: "Weightlifting is an Olympic Sport open for all athletes to participate without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, or national origin in accordance with the principles of the Olympic Charter and values. This rule modification has been considered in the spirit of fairness, equality and inclusion."

Hmm, "in the spirit of fairness, equality and inclusion." What a novel thought.

FIFA? Care to address this issue?

1 comment:

The Linoleum Surfer said...

Al7amdulillah!!! Great to see some reason out there. This isn't about some special treatment or militancy, it's a simple question of "why not?!". FIFA just don't have a good answer to that. I'm glad the IWF did: "No reason at all..."