Olympics: Dress politics in Spain Vs Egypt Beach Volleyball
Paris: When Spain defeated Egypt on straight sets of beach volleyball at Paris Olympics on Thursday, the debate in social media was not about the performance of the players, it was all about what they wore to the court. Hijab, the attire choice of the Cairo women, was a matter of serious debates across social media platforms, as it was in stark contrast to bikini worn by the Spanish players.
The match was a determining factor for the quarter-finals in the Olympic volleyball tournament. The pictures of the match went viral on the social media and the contrasting attires of the two teams, culturally and geographically distinct, became a topic of hot debate. Egyptian team comprised of Marwa Abdelhady and Doaa Elghobashy, while Fernandez Steiner Liliana and Soria Gutierrez Paula made up the Spanish team. When Spain defeated Egypt in the match, the netizens were all bothered about the players’ attires than the results. Egyptian players, wearing hijabs, long black-sleeved shirts, and black ankle-length leggings found themselves on the wrong end of the stick in the debate.
Commenting on X (formerly Twitter), a user made fun of the contrast as 'Baywatch vs Scuba divers', while another was worried about how hot the Egyptians players would feel in the hijab. Another user said that "Those Egyptian women have got to be at a disadvantage dressed like that". "Spain will be dressing like that in 20 years or sooner", alleged a user who called himself B, James. Many users also pointed out disadvantages on both forms of dresses. Freedom of choice was also highlighted in some comments. Jeannie Doran, another user, wrote that she didn't understand why the women, clad in bikini, are made to expose their buttocks, while the male players wore shorts.
Speaking earlier to the Swedish newspaper Expressen on France’s hijab ban for its athletes in the event, the Egyptian player Marwa Abdelhady had said that she didn’t like it. “I want to play in my hijab, she wants to play in a bikini - everything is okay, if you want to be naked or wear a hijab. Just respect all different cultures and religions”, she stated. Abdelhady said that she didn’t impose her choice of dress on anybody and no one should tell her to wear what she didn’t want to. “No one can tell me how to dress. It's a free country, everyone should be allowed to do what they want”, she added.
Amnesty International was one of the ten groups which opposed the French ban on hijab which it felt would discriminate against Muslim athletes. Anna Blus, the group's women rights researcher, stated that "Banning French athletes from competing with hijabs in the Olympic and Paralympic Games makes a mockery of claims that Paris 2024 is the first gender-neutral Olympics and exposes the racist gender discrimination that underpins access to sport in France".
Helene Ba, co-founder of Basket Pour Toutes (Basketball For All) spoke to BBC about the ban on the eve of Paris Olympics. Her group, which includes mostly young hijab-wearing French Muslim women who love basketball, is fighting against the ban on the Islamic attire in their game and all other sports in the country. She said that the ban had turned people like her into activism. Emphasizing how younger Muslim women in France lost all opportunities because they were unaware of being excluded from the mainstream, Ba said that many stopped playing sport altogether as they didn't have any alternative.
She urged all to speak against the discrimination and infringement on people's rights, when a rule targeted a minority group. She also warned that such discrimination could hit anyone anytime and stressed on the need for mutual support, across groups, in times of need. "We grew up without any role models and we will never have - if these rules stay in place - a French hijabi athlete representing the national team", Ba added.
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10-yr-old boy who fell into borewell in MP's Guna dies
Bhopal, Dec 29: A 10-year-old boy, who fell into a 140-feet borewell in Madhya Pradesh's Guna district, lost the battle for life despite hectic efforts by multiple agencies for 16 hours to save him, officials said on Sunday.
The boy, Sumit Meena, slipped into the open shaft of the borewell at around 5 pm on Saturday in Pipliya village under Raghogarh assembly segment, located 50 km from the Guna district headquarters.
He was unresponsive when he was brought out at around 9.30 am on Sunday, the officials said.
The boy was rushed to a hospital in Raghogarh on life support system, Guna Superintendent of Police Sanjeev Sinha told PTI.
"Sorry to say, he is no more," Guna district chief medical and health officer Dr Rajkumar Rishishwar told reporters at the hospital.
"The child was in the narrow borewell for the entire night in the chilly weather. His hands and feet were drenched and swollen. His clothes were also wet and mud was found in his mouth," he said.
Doctors examined whether the body parts froze due to hypothermia (a condition that occurs when the core body temperature drops below 95 degrees Fahrenheit, he said.
Rescuers worked through the night and dug a parallel pit to reach the boy via a passage between the pit and borewell, Raghogarh Congress MLA Jaivardhan Singh told PTI over phone from the spot earlier in the morning.
The boy was trapped at a depth of 39 feet in the borewell, which is around 140-feet deep, Guna Collector Satendra Singh said on Saturday.
The borewell did not strike water, and hence no casing had been put on it, he said.
The NDRF team reached there from Bhopal late Saturday evening and helped in the operation.
The family members of the boy panicked on Saturday evening when they did not see him for a long time.
A search was carried out and then they realised he had fallen into the borewell, a local person said.
