Dream Space

betterawittyfool:

this has been one of the biggest things about fifa for me. france in and of itself has not been a friendly place to Muslims at all, especially Muslim women who choose to wear the hijab/niqab. the act of banning it, I’m sorry to say, has some level of Islamophobia playing into it. i’ve been playing soccer since i was a young’un, and i’ve always played it with my scarf on. has it EVER been a safety concern for me? no. there are so many different styles & ways to make it so that it doesn’t use pins or isn’t flowing freely around on the ground for people to trip on. saying it’s a safety concern is just as ridiculous as saying that hair in a pony tail is a safety concern, because frankly, if i’m pissed off & have horrible sportsmanship, i can yank on your damn ponytail just as easily as i can yank on a scarf. the fact is, there are ways to do it in order to ensure the safety of the player as well as those around them. to ban it completely is to show that fifa has no desire to be an inclusive environment to those who visibly practice different faiths, and that’s ridiculously pathetic & depressing, especially as a soccer fan and someone who avidly watches the fifa world cup.

soccer is supposed to be a sport that brings people together, a universal sport that is played in every nation on this globe because it’s so accessible and is a pleasure to play & watch. fifa should acknowledge that what they’ve done is a regression in our 21st century model towards inclusiveness & diversity, and respect for different faiths and traditions, as well.

please, take the united nation’s advice into consideration. you know, kids grow up being told that they can be anything they want to be. how are you going to tell someone they can’t play the sport they love on behalf of the nation they belong to because of their beliefs? how are you going to allow for the ignorance to breed like this? how are you going to stand aside and watch this sport be tainted by empty claims and allow for entire nations to go without participation because of a preconceived notion that exists only in your head, and is entirely avoidable?

remove the ban on the hijab. do it because it’s the right thing to do. do it in the name of soccer.