Prof. Howard Friedman (Religion Clause) summarizes three recent disputes related to women athlete’s desire to wear clothing that departs from regulations:
In the wake of the disqualification of Iraq’s women’s soccer team by international sports officials because of the team’s insistence on a uniform that meets religious requirements (see prior posting), two more challenges to international sports uniform rules have been mounted. The Atlanta Journal Constitution and CNN reported yesterday that the U.S. Olympic Committee has asked the International Weightlifting Federation to review its rules after a 35-year old Muslim woman, an Atlanta resident, was disqualified from competing in a national competition in Ohio last December. IWF rules require that athletes wear costumes that are collarless and do not cover the elbows or knees. Weight-lifter Kulsoom Abdullah usually wears loose long pants that extend below her ankles, a long-sleeve fitted shirt with a loose T-shirt over it, and a hijab covering her hair. Modifications create several problems. Judges need to see that the weight lifter’s elbows and knees are locked during the lift. They also need to make certain that the individual is not wearing anything on her elbows that would give her a competitive advantage. The IWF technical committee will review the relevant rules on June 26 at a scheduled meeting in Malaysia. It will present a recommendation to the IWF executive board the next day.
Meanwhile, in Israel, an Orthodox Jewish player on the country’s women’s national basketball team has been disqualified. FIBA Europe, the governing body for European basketball, says that its rules require that all members of a team be dressed alike. Naama Shafir wears a T-shirt under her jersey in order to comply with Jewish religious rules relating to modesty. AP and JTA this week report that FIBA has refused to make an exception for Shafir so she can play in a tournament that opens June 18 in Poland. According to Haaretz, an Israeli appeal of the ruling was rejected on technical grounds. Shafir just completed her college studies in the United States, where she led the University of Toledo (Ohio) team to a Women’s NIT championship. (Background.) Officials had no problem with permitting Shafir to wear the modified uniform when playing in the U.S.
CNN adds:
Abdullah says she understands the need to make sure she isn’t wearing anything under her clothes to give her a competitive advantage. She says judges could check to make sure she is not wearing something on her elbows, for example, that might help her. And she says she’s willing to wear a “snug” shirt — though not skin tight — underneath a loose singlet, so judges could “see that there’s lockout” in her arms when she does her lifts.
I can’t speak to the details of all the cases; for instance, I don’t know the procedural reasons behind the denial of the Israeli appeal, and I don’t know to what extent there are legitimate safety concerns with the Iranian headscarves, or whether Abdullah’s proposed accommodations would resolve the concerns about refereeing the weightlifting competitions.
But it seems to me that sports organizations ought to try to be accommodating in such situations, unless a safe and fair solution can’t be found, notwithstanding any tradition of maintaining total uniformity (which, according to the news coverage, is all that’s behind the FIBA incident). Not all religious accommodation requests should be accepted, either as a matter of law — in those situations where there is a legal rule requiring some religious accommodations — or as a matter of fairness and of assuring the best athletic competitions between the best athletes. But it seems to me that athletic authorities ought to be open to considering those requests that don’t unduly undermine some serious safety or fairness concerns.
This is especially so if the athletic authority’s goal is to further athleticism among girls and women. We should want girls and women from Muslim, Orthodox Jewish, conservative Christian, and other similar groups to feel encouraged to participate in sports — to compete and excel and have the personal and social benefits that come from that. To the extent that we suspect that those groups may hold girls and women back from equal participation in various tasks, I think we should do what we can to support those girls and women who want to resist that pressure, and participate in athletics, which may still be viewed by many as a traditionally male preserve. Pushing them to choose between athletics and their religion is likely to interfere with that goal.
Finally, it seems to me that we should acknowledge that the modesty rules of various cultures tend to serve similar goals. Our culture has modesty rules just like various religious subcultures do; it’s just that we draw the line in somewhat different places. Why not leave athletes free, within those necessary bounds dictated by safety and fairness, to follow the modesty rules that seem right to them?