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Fight To Unban Hijabs On The Basketball Court

A petition with almost 92,000 signatures to re-allow Hijabis to play basketball should have all our interests

Sudanese basketball player Asma Elbadawi has begun a petition on Change.org to re-allow women who wear hijabs to play basketball.

Swiss basketball regulators called the International Basketball Federation or better known by its acronym FIBA banned hijabs, turbans and other religious headwear in 2014 due to safety reasons. 

FIFA also had restrictions on females wearing the garment for similar reasons but they lifted the restrictions in 2014 after a two-year trial period which started in 2012. The results of the trial period discovered there was no correlation between the lack of safety of the player and the wearing of a hijab.

Indira Kaljo
Indira Kaljo, Youtube

FIBA has recently allowed a two-year provisional trial period after the petition reached 70,000 signatures but FIBA will now decide if they will allow the hijab on all levels of the game whether it be National, International or Olympics, that is why Asma Elbadawi is pleading for more signatures to put pressure on the Sport's regulatory organisation.

Indira Kaljo, a Bosnian-born American has also released a video(below) encouraging people to support Hijabis in their struggle to compete with fellow athletes.

The petition only needs 60,000 more signatures to reach its 150,000 goal which will provide them with more leverage  in their argument to re-allow women who wear hijabs and to play the game they love whilst not facing any discrimination.