Remarks courtesy Jihad Watch contributor Eric Schwappach:
Will these games be reminiscent of the "Golden Man" games? The Iranian media will no doubt report them in their respendent Islamic glory. From the Daily Times of Pakistan:
TEHRAN: An American Muslim runner is to be the first woman to represent the US in Iran’s Islamic Women Games, although photographers will not be allowed to record the event to be held in Tehran from September 22 to 28.Saira Kureshi, 26, will compete in the 800 and 1500 metre runs in the fourth all-women games, since they were launched in 1993 as a way for Iranian women to compete while observing their strict dress code of being covered head to toe.
[Male] coaches, referees and spectators are banned from attending the Islamic Women Games except for golf, shooting and archery, where participants are modestly dressed and veiled.
Only these three competitions are open to male spectators and can be photographed or filmed, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies since the women appear in Islamic wear.
Let us hope that Ms. Kureshi is mindful of the outcome for those women who fail to heed the dress-code.
In order to attract more athletes, this year non-Muslim women have been allowed to participate as long as they are on the national teams of their countries and agree to compete under the stipulated conditions.Sportswomen from 48 countries, many of them Islamic, are coming to Tehran to compete in 18 sports. Iran’s Christian northern neighbour, Armenia, is sending 17 teams. Athletics, shooting, table tennis and taekwondo have attracted the most participants.
This approach is in line with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's vision.
Although Iran has been approached by other Muslim countries such as Pakistan and Qatar wanting to host the games, Faezeh Hashemi, daughter of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who started the games in 1993 sees little chance of them leaving Iran.“Other countries have different interpretations of Islam. I am not sure they would be able to hold the games like us with such observance of Islamic rules,” she said.
Translation: The Shi'a/Sunni enmity continues unabated.
Here are all of the corrected links in order of appearance:
Golden Man link
Daily Times link
Failure to heed dress code link
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's vision link
Athletes in burkas, what a delightful laughingstock. The crowning event will certainly be the 500 metre potatoe sack race. This one definitely needs a Monty Python episode. The head official is no doubt Diana Moon Glampers who will be handing out sandbags to strap to the runners.
This is "dhimmitude" how exactly?
Was this athlete *forced* to compete?
If Muslims wanted to force all our female athletes to compete with burkas in our *domestic* competitions, that would be one thing. (And if they ever get a chance to institute their Sharia here, I'm sure that's what they would do, if indeed they allowed sports at all.) But come on, this article has no place on this site. It debases the choir and puts off casual, interested visitors.
spect8or,
What of the foreign athletes that Iran is trying to attract? Athletes who come from non-Muslim countries or who are non-Muslims from Muslim countries? Doesn't Iranian dress-code stipulations imposed on non-Muslim women constitute some form of dhimmitude?
It sure seems that way to me.
Well, participation is voluntary, isn't it?
Read another way, one could say that it's a positive development that Iran is willing to allow non-Muslims to compete in the "Islamic Women's Games".
I understand there's that pesky double-standard of everything being hunky dory with an "Islamic Women's Games" but God help you if you tried to stage a "Christian Women's Games", but all in all I have trouble reading this one as an *imposition of dhimmitude*.
Honestly, regarding dhimmitude, there are far greater concerns than this little domestic Iranian get-together. I think we'd be far wiser in concentrating on those. "Filler" examples like this just detract from the more important work to be done.
Of course, this is Spencer's site, and I can he (along with you guys) can post whatever he wants, but as someone who shares your concerns about Jihad and Sharia, I think we'd all be better off if this site didn't "force" or "make up" issues like this one. (Saying with a straight face that Carl Savich "sets the record straight" on another recently posted piece would be another example of such "forcing", imo.)
spect8or,
It is "filler" reports like this that make up the whole of the stated goal of Islam towards world supremacy. The Iranian games are yet another example of this Islamic intransigence.
The president of Iran has recently stated the following,
This quote -
- may be viewed as short-man bluster, but it does reflect what the West has and continues to contend with, that being an uncompromising ideology.
Every drop of water, no matter how insignificant they may appear, makes up the "wave" of which Mr. Ahmadinejad speaks.
It is fruitless to even waste time pondering stories such as this, except to show that the exception proves the rule -- Any fantasy that such "developments" as women participating in sports, or participating in "elections" in Saudi Arabia simply perpetuate a myth that Islam is capable of reform -- IT ISN'T! It NEVER WILL BE... While Islam may pass through periods of dormancy, or while it may periodically manifest signs of "moderation" it will ALWAYS be a heartbeat away from the feral belief system we see ravaging the earth today.
Leaving Iran:
Leaving Iran is not so easy. Most of the educated/modern Iranians left prior to or shortly after the revolution.
I have a family member who is an Iranian Jew. She came on a visitor's visa after the revolution and got political asylum. Her sister was just here and after getting her 6 month visa extended once, she was forced to return.
Iran used to have 100,000 Jews prior to the Islamic revolution, and now there are approximately 20,000, mostly older, who have sent their children abroad.
I see these 20,000, who mostly live in Tehran, as hostages in any conflict.
According to her, things were loosening up, but now it seems to be going in the opposite direction and I am concerned.
I wish Robert Spencer would discuss the situation of Iran's Jews in one of his columns.