Headscarves are not part of the official equipment authorized in the Laws of the Game that govern soccer, and so have long been banned. When an effort was launched to add headscarves as permitted clothing, objections were raised that scarves were not safe because a player could be choked if someone grabbed the scarf and pulled on it.
Iranian soccer then designed a headscarf that met Islamic standards while not being tied around the neck. It was essentially a bag or snood containing the hair.
But international soccer did not accept that and the Iranian female team was ejected from the field when it competed for a slot in this month’s Olympics while wearing un-approved clothing.
Subsequently, two forms of tear-away headscarves have been designed. One uses light magnets to secure the headscarf under the chin; the other uses Velcro fasteners. Both were ruled safe by a soccer medical committee.
No explanation was given for why the Iranian snood design was not considered.
Meeting last Thursday in Zurich, the International Football Association Board that oversees the Laws of the Game, voted unanimously to approve a two-year trial period for headscarves. The board will review that decision at its meeting in 2014.
The board only approved a trial period, it said, because “there is no medical literature concerning injuries as a result of wearing a headscarf.” A meeting of the board this October will determine the design, color and material to be authorized for any headscarves.
The decision was made following a year-long campaign by Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein of Jordan, who was recently elected a vice president of FIFA, the governing body of international soccer.
All of this comes too late for the Iranian women’s soccer team as the elimination rounds for the 2012 Olympics are long since finished.
While the board decision would appear to close the issue, the French Soccer Federation objected and said it would not allow the headscarf to be used by any French players. The federation said it has a “duty to respect the constitutional and legislative principles of secularism that prevail in our country and feature in its statutes.”
Gerald Darmanin, a member of the National Assembly, called for France to “ban headscarves from soccer fields in the country,” reasoning that sports “must continue to promote equality of the sexes.” In France, it is commonplace to view headscarves as male oppression of women, not as a free choice by wearers.
At the meeting where the headscarves were approved, the board also approved two technology systems to judge whether a soccer ball has passed the goalmouth and become a score.
At a World Cup Asian elimination match a few weeks ago, an Iranian defender deflected a ball that later video replays showed had already completely crossed the goal line and should have been rated a goal. Every year, there are a few such disputed goals and the new technology should eliminate that controversy.