To The Pitch for Women!

Cultural or Religious?



More than 29 million women are playing futbol (soccer to us in N. America), according to FIFA the international governing body of the sport. Sadly, to this point, many Muslim girls/women were unable to play because FIFA has declared that no person should play wearing a religious article of clothing or an article that infringes upon the possible safety of the player...and, apparently, the hijab was and did those things.
After watching the video last year of the girl from BYU jerk down another girl by her ponytail, I have a hard time understanding why the original version of the hajib could be construed as a safety issue. Because it was attached with bobby pins and knots of various kinds, it was thought that the mostly flowing headgear (designed to hide a woman's hair completely but allow the face to be seen) could be extremely dangerous if jerked on from behind. It would seem that such an action would be punishable by a card of one color or the other, but I digress.
Also problematic until last year was the impression that said garment was an Islamic religious piece of apparel. Prince Ali Bin al-Hussein of Jordan was finally able to convince FIFA that the garment was a cultural thing, NOT a religious thing. FIFA accepted his argument, but there was still the safety issue. Until now. Cindy van den Bremen of Holland is a designer who came up with something better. She designed the "Capster," a stretchy, slip-over-and-cover-your-hair version of the hijab that she says will completely eradicate any argument about safety. The one-piece item slips over the head and is secured at the neck with velcro. If it is yanked on from behind ("Ladies, PLEASE!") it will simply fall away, leaving the attacking player with a hunk of polyester and a few strands of hair while the player attacked would merely be racing down the pitch covering her hair with her hands (since they don't use them for anything else in soccer, er, futbol).
Truly this is an idea whose time has come. Girls and women around the world have begun to enter all sorts of male bastions, and while I suspect the Islamic cultural ban on women as anything but wives and mothers might take a bit of a hit now that females can kick a ball with a clear conscience, the guys must have known that it would only be a matter of time.
Capsters today, driving tomorrow.
It's too bad there is no snow in most of these countries...they would already have discovered the stocking hat/mask that we wear all the time for snowmobiling.