Women sevens rugby…that’s another story.
Full story here, bits below.
Iran's Zohre Eyni, left, is challenged by Italy's Sara Pettinelli during the clash which Italy won
Kitted out in tight-fitting headscarves and full tracksuits to protect their modesty, the players caused quite a stir when they played in Europe for the first time.
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In all the matches the team played wearing the ‘maghnaeh’, a veil that fully covers the head, shoulders and neck, along with red tracksuit tops and bottoms.
A quarter of a century ago, in the early years of the 1979 Islamic revolution when competitive sports for women were strongly discouraged, it would have been unthinkable for Iranian women to play a sport as physical as rugby.
Iranian team coach Fatme Molai, who has been in the job for four years, said: ‘Wearing a veil does not change our method of play – clothes are something you wear and don’t influence what you know how to do.
‘To be honest the federation are looking at other head covers which are perhaps more practical.”
Captain Zohre Eyni, 22, said: ‘First I played football but I now play rugby as I really enjoy it but my family are not so sure it is the right thing for a woman.
‘The whole team has learnt how to keep the veil in place so that it doesn’t interfere with play and I think we have shown that even a physical game like rugby can be played in a veil.
‘There are no risks playing in a veil, as I said what is important is that you arrange it safe and well, what you have to be careful with is losing your tracksuit bottoms in a tackle or scrum.’
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Alireza Iraj, Tehran women’s rugby coach, said as a man he had to stick with one of Iran’s Islamic rules which states that members of the opposite sex cannot touch each other unless they are married couples or immediate members of a family.
Other also read:
You know, I am a believer in being modest…but this goes too far because it just looks really weird. Maybe this falls under the category of “if they can’t do an activity dressed like a girl in modest attire, maybe they shouldn’t do it at all….” The non-Muslim girl looks like guy, and the Muslim girl /woman looks like she could be in the film “Willy Wonka” as an “Oompa Loompa.” I’m sorry. It had to be said.
Their view of “modesty” obviously doesn’t coincide with “femininity”, does it?