GENEVA - A Swiss basketball player said she was set to fight a ban on her Islamic headscarf which would force her to either remove the covering or quit the sport, local media reported Wednesday.
Sura Al-Shawk who plays for the team STV Luzerne, was informed by the regional basketball association that International Basketball Federation rules banned headscarves.
“I have been playing wearing my scarf for almost a year and a half. Many of the players have Christian tattoos and religious symbols on their bodies and nobody objects to that,” Al-Shawk said, according to the swissinfo.ch news portal.
The federation, for its part, said it demands complete political and religious neutrality when playing at league-level. Moreover, it said wearing “accessories” could increase the chance of injury, as basketball was a contact sport.
Al-Shawk, originally from Iraq, plans to fight the ruling and said she has support from Swiss law professors and lawyers in Berne and Geneva.
Switzerland’s Muslim minority constitutes about 4 per cent of the population.
www.blog.taragana.com/sports/2009/09/09/swiss-basket
Sura Al-Shawk who plays for the team STV Luzerne, was informed by the regional basketball association that International Basketball Federation rules banned headscarves.
“I have been playing wearing my scarf for almost a year and a half. Many of the players have Christian tattoos and religious symbols on their bodies and nobody objects to that,” Al-Shawk said, according to the swissinfo.ch news portal.
The federation, for its part, said it demands complete political and religious neutrality when playing at league-level. Moreover, it said wearing “accessories” could increase the chance of injury, as basketball was a contact sport.
Al-Shawk, originally from Iraq, plans to fight the ruling and said she has support from Swiss law professors and lawyers in Berne and Geneva.
Switzerland’s Muslim minority constitutes about 4 per cent of the population.
www.blog.taragana.com/sports/2009/09/09/swiss-basket
