21 - 27 March 2002
Issue No.578
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 21 - 27 March 2002 Issue No.578 |
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Half-Time
The flip side
Arab and youth sports ministers are currently in Sharm El-Sheikh to discuss, among other things, women's sports in this part of the world.
Arab and youth sports ministers are currently in Sharm El-Sheikh to discuss, among other things, women's sports in this part of the world. Not the hottest topic at the moment, mind you, and the ministers can find at least a dozen more pressing issues to discuss. But that is exactly the problem: women's sports in the Arab and Islamic world have been short- shrifted for years, on the field and courts, constantly upstaged by their male counterparts.
As it stands today, each Arab country runs its women's sports programmes according to its own rules. Some countries want their women to win medals in the Olympics -- and they do, like the female track stars in Algeria and Morocco. Others limit their goals to competing only with other Arabs. Still others are satisfied with domestic-only challenges. And there are some nations, the more conservative, who never heard of the subject and probably never will.
Women sports in the region deserve something more advanced, some sort of unified sports agenda that would be applied to all countries and strictly adhered to. Such a set-up would better define the goals women in sports seek. The ministers, for example, should seriously consider organising an Arab Olympics along the lines of Iran's Islamic Women's Games held last year. The event went a long way towards uniting Muslim women, not least because all involved were women -- athletes, coaches, officials, referees and even the fans. If held on a regular basis, such a tournament could also entice company rather than government sponsorship, the approach adopted by any country which takes professional sports seriously.
The media must also make a determined effort to focus more on female athletes. In the non-Arab world, women athletes share the billing with men, in no small part because the media give them equal air time and the same amount of ink. Few people engaged in sports small-talk can mention Woods and not Sorenstam, Sampras and not Hingis, Johnson and not Freeman. But even in Egypt, where women sports is far ahead of many other Arab countries, one would be hard pressed to come up with even one Egyptian women's name in any sport.
Women in the West are now invading what was until very recently male territory. There are women soaring in the pole vault, flexing their biceps in weightlifting, showing themselves off in body-building and going toe-to-toe in boxing. Women's soccer, which premiered on the professional stage not too long ago, now has a huge worldwide following, thanks in large part to the 2000 women's-only World Cup in the United States which made America's female champions household names. It may not be long before we see women in the few remaining male preserves of cricket, rugby and, it is not inconceivable, maybe American football.
Arab women have not yet managed to penetrate male-dominated sports and, in fact, are still grappling with basketball, volleyball and handball. But for now, these more common athletic endeavours are challenging enough.
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