Taekwondo Lifting Ban on Headscarves for Gender Equality?
26 09 2009
In 2007 the World Taekwondo Federation formally banned female competitors from wearing traditional hijab (headscarves) under their protective headgear for “safety reasons”. This decision was recently officially overturned in hope to attract more competitors from Muslim countries to participate in the upcoming World Taekwondo Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark. Whether this decision was made purely out of good faith to promote equality in the sport or not maybe something of debate; but nonetheless, this was a wise decision in part of the WTF. Taekwondo’s appeal and popularity are no doubt global. Regulations that even inadvertently bar large population from competing in such world events would only cast a bad light on the sport. This is definitely a win for TKD. Cheers to the WTF.
The original story can be found at:
http://www.ctvolympics.ca/news-centre/newsid=15806.html
