http://news.nationalpost.com/news/c...soccer-game-after-complaints-from-muslim-team
This is an interesting case in Canada of religious rights vs. equality/gender rights. These two girls were allowed to play on the boys team because there was no girls senior team and they successfully tried out and were good enough to make the boys team. However, the coach of the opposing team is from an all-muslim independent school, and the boys are not allowed to have physical contact or be on the field with girls. They didn't know two of the players on the boys' team were girls. At halftime, the coach said either the girls needed to be removed from the game or they wouldn't play. Thoughts?
EDIT: The other team requested that either the girls sit out or they'd have no choice but to forfeit. The girls accepted that they'd rather sit out and let their boy teammates finish the game (needing points/stats) rather than take the forfeit win. Question is, whether they should've even had to do that.
The senior boys’ soccer team from Robert F. Hall Catholic Secondary School in Caledon, Ont., was up 3-1 at the half on Tuesday when the coach pulled aside Carla Briscoe, one of two girls on the team.
Briscoe, who was in the starting lineup, wondered if she was being called out for playing too rough, but it turned out the coach from the opposing school, ISNA High, an independent Islamic school in Mississauga, Ont., had told the referee his team could not continue playing because of the presence of girls on the field.
As much as the competitive 18-year-old senior wanted to continue playing, she agreed to sit out the rest of the game. The team needed the extra points and it would be unfair to stop the game when some of her teammates hadn’t taken to the field. “I said to my coach, ‘I’d rather see everybody play. I don’t want to ruin this for the rest of the team. Me and the other girl will sit out.’'
The rules governing sports in the region mirror those set by the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations, which states if a sport is not available to girls at a school, they can join the boys’ team after a successful tryout.
Essa Abdool-Karim, the ISNA coach, told CityNews, the team was “caught off-guard” by the presence of girls on the team. “We assumed this was a senior boys’ league and we thought it was exclusively for boys,” he said. “Understand that free mixing is something that, generally speaking, we do not do, more so out of respect than anything. It’s got nothing to do with discrimination.”
Paul Freier, chairman of the Region of Peel Secondary School Athletic Association (ROPSSAA) sent an email Friday to the ISNA coach making it clear schools must abide by those rules. If they don’t like them, they are free to leave the athletic association.
This is an interesting case in Canada of religious rights vs. equality/gender rights. These two girls were allowed to play on the boys team because there was no girls senior team and they successfully tried out and were good enough to make the boys team. However, the coach of the opposing team is from an all-muslim independent school, and the boys are not allowed to have physical contact or be on the field with girls. They didn't know two of the players on the boys' team were girls. At halftime, the coach said either the girls needed to be removed from the game or they wouldn't play. Thoughts?
EDIT: The other team requested that either the girls sit out or they'd have no choice but to forfeit. The girls accepted that they'd rather sit out and let their boy teammates finish the game (needing points/stats) rather than take the forfeit win. Question is, whether they should've even had to do that.