MONTREAL – Despite a decision by the Quebec Soccer Federation to lift its controversial hijab ban, women wearing head scarves will have to sit on the sidelines for at least one more season.
“We still have to iron out exactly what kind of hijabs can be worn to create the safest environment possible for our players, so it will take a few months to come into effect,” QSF spokesperson Michel Dugas told The Gazette on Monday. “Right now, we’re looking at October at the earliest.”
The QSF’s announcement comes just days after soccer’s regulatory board overturned its 2007 ruling prohibiting players from wearing the Islamic head scarf.
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) has approved two sport-specific hijab prototypes after its medical committee determined neither model posed a safety threat.
Responding to the FIFA ruling, some members of Quebec’s Muslim community are saying the ban was never about safety concerns.
“The idea that somehow the hijab would get tangled and suffocate a player was always absurd to us,” said Salam Elmenyawi, a spokesperson for the Muslim Council of Montreal.
“It’s hypothetical baloney that has more to do with bigotry and religious intolerance than anything else.”
The banning of hijabs on the soccer pitch has been a lightning rod for controversy in Quebec since the rule was instituted in 2007.
In the same year, an Ottawa-area soccer team pulled out of a Laval tournament when one of its players, 11-year-old Asmahan Mansour, was asked to remove her scarf.
The incident came to symbolize Quebec’s reasonable accommodation debate.
Another incident involving the hijab rule sprung up last weekend in Gatineau, when a 9-year-old girl was kicked out of a soccer tournament for wearing her head scarf.
The girl had reportedly worn her hijab during league games in the Outaouais region since May.
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