Olympic pic is no culture clash

There's a lot more to that famous photo from the Olympics than just the burqa, writes Shelina Janmohamed

Ibtihaj Muhammad of the United States adjusts her hijab prior to competing in the saber fencing event at the 2016 Summer Olympics (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Making it to the Olympics is something few of us have the talent to accomplish, and even fewer actually achieve. But for women it’s harder still. While the modern Olympics began in 1896, it was only in 2012 that all sports included events for women. But the struggle for women to be accepted as true athletes continues. And it’s a gritty struggle lined with obstacles.

Of all the amazing photography from Rio so far, one image has captured the public’s imagination: that photo of two volleyball players leaping high into the air, facing each other, their bodies stretched to the limit.

But it has captured imaginations for another reason: the woman on one side is Egyptian Doaa Elghobashy, her body covered in a long sleeved top, long trousers and a headscarf. Her German opponent on the right is in a tiny bikini. Two women athletes at the height of their prowess.

Some media coverage dubbed it a “culture clash” and “a massive cultural divide” but what I saw was something beautiful – women coming together in a shared purpose, and their clothes had nothing to do with it. Or at least the clothes shouldn’t have had anything to do with it. The image represents how different cultures can be beautiful and how women’s performance is what we should be focusing on, not what they wear.

There is always a huge discussion around what Muslim women wear, which such headlines illustrate. But the photo also illuminates a wider problem in how women’s sport generally is covered by the media compared to men. A study released this month by Cambridge University Press looked at how men and women are reported in sport. Men are three times more likely than women to be mentioned in a sporting context, while women are described in relation to their marital status, age or appearance. So “strong, big, real, great or fastest” compared to “aged, pregnant or unmarried”.

Despite this ridiculous focus on how they look, what they wear or to whom they are married, these women are focused on their goals.

Some years ago, Sania Mirza, a tennis player from India, carried on her successful career despite the conniptions about her clothing, which even generated fatwas. Plenty of Muslim women’s groups pointed out the lunatic obsession with her outfit compared to the horrors women face daily that should have generated far more outrage.

As one campaigner said: “If Islamic law says a woman is not supposed to wear such clothes, then they should know the same law also forbids dowry, alcoholism and incest. Yet the jamaat [local Muslim organisation] promotes dowry and even guns for a share in it. They’re not bothered about a girl earning pride for the country. They are making an issue out of a stupid matter.”

It’s as though we just can’t believe that women on their own, as independent, autonomous and high performing people, can actually achieve amazing outcomes. Nothing to do with their clothes. Nothing to do with who they are married to. And perhaps – controversially – nothing to do with what people think about them, but instead through their goals and performance paving the way for not just sporting but also cultural change.

Shelina Zahra Janmohamed is the author of Love in a Headscarf