ISSUE #28 CONTENTS:
- Saudi and Emerati Females Athletes Banned at the Games
- Essay Contest Finalist Stays Underground
- Yemen’s New Vice Squads
- QUIZ: Saudi Arabia with "No Reservations"?
- Become a Partner in CRIME
SPOTLIGHT CASES:
Saudi and Emerati Females Athletes Banned at the Games
10,000 athletes from 200 countries are about to gather in Beijing under the banner “One World, One Dream.” But for sportswomen from countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Iran, that dream remains unfulfilled. While the International Olympic Committee bans any gender discrimination, these Gulf countries invoke “cultural and religious” reasons for forcing talented female athletes to stay home.
Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are legally banned from participating in any sports activity (though unofficial women’s basketball leagues are thriving). This doesn’t sit well with local women athletes. "We want to reach Olympic levels," explains Shatha Bakhsh, a member of the unlicensed Jeddah United basketball team. “We have a lot of potential, but not the chance to show it.” Her teammate, Lina al-Maeena, agrees: “When parents say that sports is sinful for girls, it really upsets me, because they're depriving their daughters of something that's very good for them.”
Iranian women are limited to sports that can comply with the country’s legal dress codes, so diving, cycling, and beach volleyball (among others) are effectively off-limits. Only three women are on the Iranian Olympic team, competing in rowing, archery, and tae kwon do. But even these athletes have to be careful not to reveal any skin by accident: Iranian rower Ramoneh Lazar was recently expelled from the national team after her ankles were seen inside her boat during a competition in Bangkok.
Perhaps by the 2012 Games in London the deferred dreams of these female athletes will at last be realized.
WANTED for Dreaming: Essay Contest Finalist Stays Underground
When "Rostam" (not his real name) entered the HAMSA essay contest, he had to balance what he calls the "insatiable need to share my misery with the world" with fear of being exposed and arrested if he won. Interviewed from an undisclosed location (for security reasons) in his native Iran, the contest winner explained how he is handling both the excitement and the danger.
HAMSA: Are you afraid now that you won the contest?
I'd be lying if I said no. I'm worried - that's why I don't want my real name publicized. Even before I decided to write the essay I knew there was the risk of being exposed if I won. Still, my essay is in English, and the essay contest was not exactly advertised on public billboards in Iran. It's not my friends but rather my parents that I'm worried about. I don't want to hurt their feelings or be their prodigal son.
HAMSA: Your essay suggests Iran's older generation has failed – will your generation be different?
Of course we will be different, but it is hard to gauge how different we will be from our fathers. The ideology that the state nourishes can't last long. People of my generation feel something has to change. Sparkles of change are flashing in our minds, especially those who can connect to the Internet and get facts. The Internet has revolutionized everything - for instance, that's how I learned about the essay contest.
HAMSA: How did you come to think critically about repression in your society?
There was not one moment. But I do remember when I was 7, taking a tour of Khomeini's residence in northern Tehran. We were a bunch of kids staring at a little room through glass doors at a pair of his slippers and a white sheet-covered couch. All my friends started sniffling and crying. I tried to squeeze my eyes against the panes and ooze out some tears. But I could not. Then we were taken to the mosque next to the house where Khomeini used to give speeches. Everyone resumed their crying, yet I could not. There were sharp pangs of guilt gnawing at my conscience. I stole glances of my peers crying at something I couldn’t. See how deep these bonds have been implanted in our subconscious! Now imagine that these kids have to grow up and realize their "Revered Leader" might have made some serious mistakes; that they have to trust their own individuality and seek their basic rights. This is a painful odyssey we have to go through alone as we crawl our way, all by ourselves, out of dark tunnels of fanaticism to the light of doubt.
Muttawa Come to Town: Yemen’s New Vice Squads
Perhaps the only Arab pop star with a Ph.D in music, Ihab Tawfik last
performed in Yemen in 2000 before a crowd of tens of thousands of young people. Aside from his artistic talent, Tawfik stands out as a singer who avoids bad language and eschews female dancers in his music videos. So the conservative crooner was in for quite a shock when his upcoming concert in Yemen was banned and he received death threats warning him not to travel to Yemen.
The driving force behind Tawfik’s ban is Yemen’s new “Virtue Commission,” pictured at right, a squad of men who police public morals. These are the same “muttawa” who patrol the streets of Saudi Arabia, whipping and arresting people for wearing the wrong clothes; the muttawa have simply migrated south. The Commission launched a few weeks ago in a public ceremony where vice squad members - including clergy visiting from Saudi Arabia and wanted terrorist Sheikh Abdul Majied Al-Zendany (who heads the Commission) - sat under a banner that read: “So the ship does not sink!”
The Yemeni Virtue Commission has a mandate - backed by the ruling regime of President Saleh - to regulate all sorts of behavior, including: watching foreign TV shows, holding music parties, woman walking in the street without a male chaperone, women and men sharing workplaces and schools, uncensored Internet access, and even restaurants that introduce "unknown" food. In fact, Commissioner Al-Zedany’s men have gotten right to work: Immediately after establishing the Commission, they raided and closed down three Chinese restaurants. Take that, vice!
QUIZ: Can you really go to Saudi Arabia with "No Reservations"?
ANSWER: Not if you’re a woman –no visa without a male chaperone. 
The TravelChannel show “No Reservations” recently featured Saudi Arabia but failed to share this tourist tip. Producer Amy Teuteberg did publish a blog post about her experience, noting that the show worked with first female-owned Saudi production company ever granted permission to work without a male present. And while Teuteberg tried to explain the virtues of wearing a black full-body abbaya, one commenter pithily noted: “The government should not dictate what you have to wear out of doors. Allahu akbar!”
BECOME A PARTNER IN CRIME:
Here is a list of four quick ways you contribute to the Middle East civil rights movement:
- Forward this newsletter to friends & encourage them to subscribe.
- Write a letter to help Yemeni writer Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani.
- Write a letter to imprisoned Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer.
- Apply to participate in HAMSA’s civil rights fellowship program.