For the last two years, I have been the assistant coach of the women's Wildcats basketball team at Northwestern University in Qatar. The players are Arab, many are Muslim and most have never participated in organized sports.
But let's make no mistake. They may be girls. They may be Arab. They may even be Muslim. But they go hard. It's no secret that Middle Eastern women are often slow to progress in certain arenas. That Qatar and Saudi Arabia are, for the first time, sending women to the London games is not insignificant. So when talking about Arab women playing basketball, it is tempting for us to see their participation as novel, a glimmer of hope for which their very freedom is at stake. However, when the Wildcats are out on the court, they aren't thinking about being trailblazers, they are thinking about the game.
A young Arab Muslim woman living in the Gulf can get a thrill from a clutch defensive rebound late in the fourth quarter, or get amped up by a sick layup off the transition, and it actually has nothing to do with her being an Arab Muslim woman. It does, however, have everything to do with her being an athlete. That her thrill of victory or agony of defeat would feel any different from a male American athlete is absurd.
When it comes to minorities and women in traditionally male dominated sports, let's not risk turning every story into white man's burden. I'm not going to feed you the line: "I didn't save the oppressed Arab women of Qatar, they saved me." I'm here, in fact, to call a spade a spade. When one of our students takes the court, her race, religion, gender and social status are peripheral. She is there to hear the crisp, satisfying sound of the leather ball hitting the stiff rope nets when her jump shot lands. She is there to push herself through one more miserable suicide drill even when she thinks she cannot make it. She is there because Georgetown University in Qatar is our rival and she will be damned if they make it to this year's tournament without a fight. When the coaching staff gives pep talks before the game, we don't pat ourselves on the back for grooming a generation of young women. Our singular ambition is to make sure they take no prisoners.
This is not to say there are not benefits to people playing sports, and sometimes women playing sports. According to a recent study by economist Betsey Stevenson: "82 percent of businesswomen played sports after elementary school. While one in six women call themselves athletic, nearly half of women making over $75,000 do. Girls' increased sports participation explained about 20 percent of the increase in education and about 40 percent of the rise in employment for 25-to-34-year-old women." Statistic upon statistic prove that participation in athletics enhances leadership, team building skills, discipline, and has numerous health benefits. That in struggling communities these benefits are all the more impactful is unquestionable.
This is also not to deny the social impact of sports for women and minorities. Jesse Owens' performance at the 1936 summer games: a message to the warring world. Jackie Robinson's signature on a Brooklyn Dodger's contract in 1947: the ushering in of a new era. Tommie Smith and John Carlos' raised fists at the 1968 Olympics: a call to action. Billy Jean King's Battle of the Sexes in 1973: more than just a game. Katie Hnida's two points in a Division I-A football in 2003: the kick heard round the country. And the list goes on.
But this is not about those subtle revolutions. It's that Jesse, Jackie, Tommie, John, Billy Jean and Katie were driven to success in spite of who they were, not because of it. So to with our girls, and by our girls, I mean our players.
| 1 | United States | 46 | 29 | 29 |
| 2 | China | 38 | 27 | 23 |
| 3 | Russia | 24 | 26 | 32 |
| 4 | Great Britain | 29 | 17 | 19 |
| 5 | Germany | 11 | 19 | 14 |
| 6 | Japan | 7 | 14 | 17 |
We are talking about basketball right? Well first of all you need to be comparing your ATHLETES to female ATHLETES in our country not their male counterparts. Why do you have to pull American Males into this conversation? We don't care about your team or anything of the sort. If you taught hockey would you be trying to call out Russian white males? I hardly think so.
Second part White man's burden? Look at our Olympic basketball teams...hardly any white people, burden lifted...carry on.
However, to suggest that no "special skills" are required to perform at the highest level of these sports is demonstrably untrue. Millions of athletes aspire to play sports professionally, but only a tiny fraction of them succeed. It's perfectly valid for you to dismiss the importance of these activities, but to say they are devoid of skill is nonsense.
Of course, if you have no problem hitting a curveball or knocking a par-3 tee shot to within eight feet of the cup, you have my compliments.
Sports are such a great outlet for men. For some of the same reasons they can be a great outlet for women. I could understand why they can be a real difference maker for women who are already strong academically.
If you are a young man and don’t have a job or are not expected to do a lot of things around the home you really do not know where your boundaries lie, in a positive sense. After you have tough it out for a high school football team for a season and have decided you want to do it again you do learn things whether you play much or not. One thing you learn without knowing it is work ethic. Another is a feeling of “yes you can”. You learn your physical boundaries and then learn how to push them towards further success. Women should not be denied these experiences simply because of their gender
Indeed. It's a revolution (LOL!). Of course, they first obtained permission from their male guardians...
What is needed is not "small moves FORWARD" which only mask the problem with a bit of tokenism and satisfy the fools; what is needed is the complete, immediate dismantling of the gender-based apartheid practised in Arab and other "Islamic" countries. Zero tolerance to gender-based apartheid will put an end to it, just like it did with the race-based version.