On Mar 5 all Kannada newspapers in Karnataka carried the news “Defeated Iranian team vis-à-vis India in the world cup women’s Kabaddi finals”. They also carried the photographs of the Indian team celebrating the occasion. While Prajavani daily, by publishing a photograph in which the Iranian team is trying to hold back the Indian Captain Mamata Poojary, stood differently! In fact the photograph generates more interest than the news. While Mamata Poojary is in half trousers and a T-shirt, Iranian players are fully covered. If the photograph had not been published in Prajavani, the readers would have presumed that the Iranian players are also similarly dressed. We should congratulate Prajavani for conveying the message of Iranian players by showing that sports is not dependent on dress!
Today sports and dress are intimately connected. Tennis, Badminton, skating, gymnastics, weight lifting, volleyball, boxing, etc. are played by women as well as men. Though the game and its rules don’t change, there is a lot of gap in the dress. When Rozer Federer wears dress up to the knee, Serena Williams does not have even 50% of that! There is a wide gap in the dress which Usain Bolt wears in the 100 mts sprint, and his counterparts do in the same game. And Usain has never complained that his knee deep dress is a hindrance in his achievements. Then why a woman sprinter should feel an obstacle with her dress?
World Badminton Association framed rules saying that women should wear skirt while playing tennis years ago. It justified the move as a means to attract the audience. But after it received objections, the implementation of said rules was postponed! Today probably no sport is held with respectable dress for women. In fact, today’s sports insist participants to wear the minimum dress. While there may be 100 eyes peeping at woman at the office or elsewhere, there will be thousands or more cameras to film the sports in the field. This is further relayed to millions of audience on the Television. So, how could a dress that would nudge or embarrass being worn within the family or home, be proper to be in before millions of strangers?
So why shouldn’t we consider this to be a conspiracy of corporate in the west to sell their products and thereby swell their bank accounts in the name of modernity?
Every sport has its own beauty. If someone is not able to appreciate it then the weakness lies with the person and not the sport. Iranian women, by fully dressing themselves, have conveyed a subtle message to the male dominated world. The Iranian team have proved that if you change your attitude, Kabbadi also turns attractive with full dress and one could reach finals too! It’s quite a fact that they did not reach the finals as it were! They have defeated the Thailand team at the semi finals with large margins. If wearing the minimum possible dress is convenient enough and a sure guarantee to winning the match, then the Thailand team should have won in the semi-finals. And in finals too the Iranian women, by playing a very mature game, accepted defeat by 6 points. Winning or losing is not important here.
Iranian women players have questioned the male psyche which has vilified a game. Each and every point these players earned gave a bloody blow to those who campaigned for half-naked dress for women. Iranian players have scored 19 points before falling out as runners up. Their defeat need not be called a defeat. We will not consider the sounds of claps that arise for every point as mere sounds! They are applause for Iranian culture. It is the respect earned for the Islamic cause upheld by Iran. This honour downsizes the world cup. By not exhibiting their bodies, by winning in their values, in fact these women players have won even in defeat. They deserve congratulations.
[The writer is editor of kannada weekly sanmarga]