Friday, June 10, 2011

It's Just a T-Shirt -Modesty Counts, Too

Haaretz reports:

The Israeli women's national basketball team says one of its stars might be kept out of the European championship because of a disagreement over her religious observance and the team uniform...Naama Shafir is an Orthodox Jew who wears a T-shirt under her jersey because Jewish modesty rules require her to cover her shoulders.

International basketball regulations require all members of a team to wear the same uniform. Organizers of the championships in Poland this month have informed the Israelis she will not be able to play with her T-shirt. Shafir said Thursday she won't play without it.

An Israeli appeal to a world basketball panel in Geneva was rejected on technical grounds on Wednesday and the deadline for more appeals has passed.


Naama:


Hey, if Iran can play in modest garb:


After all, Naama is not wearing a different color that may confuse.

It's a T-shirt for crying out loud.

^

3 comments:

Bill said...

It's silly to regard the T-shirt as constituting a distinct uniform, but, as a temporary expedient, would the less observant women be willing to wear T-shirts too? Then they would all be wearing the same uniform by any definition.

Anonymous said...

funny

the ncaa allows players to wear a t-shirt under their uni...not everyone in the team has to

aparatchik said...

Apparently the other girls would feel restricted by the T-shirt (what about solidarity with your team mate??). Why can't they make a new shirt for the whole team, one with ultra-light yet 100% opaque sleeves?