Fifa lifts ban on hijab by defining the attire as a cultural garment

Football’s world governing body temporarily lifted a ban on the hijab earlier this month seemingly to allow Muslim women to participate in football during the Olympics 2012. The decision comes too late for teams like Iran, disqualified in a qualifying round and raises more questions about the way it was done.

The International Football Association Board (IFAB)’s Law 4 (The Players’ Equipment), imposed in 2007, ruled that a player cannot wear anything considered dangerous to a player or another player and ensure that the headscarf fell under this category by not including as the allowable “basic equipment” such as a jersey, shorts, socks, shin-guards and footwear.

FIFA also banned the hijab on the premises that, “The team of a player whose basic compulsory equipment has political, religious or personal slogans or statements will be sanctioned by the competition organiser or by Fifa.”

FIFA Asia Vice President, Prince Ali of Jordan, arguing in support of wearing of the hijab said that the hijab should “no longer be viewed as a religious symbol” but as “an abidance with culture, and discrimination and exclusiveness of players are to be avoided because of cultural costumes.”

In effect, Prince Ali redefined the hijab from a religious attire to a cultural one, despite the unanimous view of religious scholars that the hijab is a religious obligation and has nothing to do with culture. This new definition goes against Islamic law and will be considered a dangerous precedent. It could open the floodgates for many others to use the wrongful FIFA definition to ban the hijab.

IFAB, the law making body of FIFA, gave the temporary ruling mainly because of the pressure ahead of the London Olympics.

There is certainly no evidence that the hijab is a health and safely issue as IFAB itself has acknowledged: “Currently there is no medical literature concerning injuries as a result of wearing a headscarf, and therefore the decision taken today will be reviewed at the IFAB Annual General Meeting in 2014.”

Unfortunately, this ruling is too late for the Iranian team who were disqualified last year before kick-off for the second round Olympic qualifying match against Jordan after refusing to remove their hijabs. The male Bahraini referee ruled that wearing of the hijab was against FIFA rules. However, he did not rule against the Jordanian team even though one of its players had donned the hijab. It has generally been the practice to allow women to wear the hijab in football.

Prince Ali needs to clarify how and why he considers the hijab as a cultural attire.