Random Access

The banning of an 11-year-old girl from Québec from a minor league soccer game last weekend for wearing the hijab has raised issues that most of us probably thought long settled.
In case you somehow missed it, Asmahan Mansour was kicked out of a tournament because she would not remove the hijab that covered her head and was tucked into her uniform. The referee claimed that Asmahan’s safety could be in jeopardy because she could be strangled or injured if the religious head dress was yanked on by another player.
Since then, it has emerged that the FIFA rules that govern soccer do actually allow soft lightweight head coverings that pose no danger, but the incident has nonetheless inflamed the smouldering cinders of religious and ethnic conflict that always seem to bubble just under the surface in Québec. Gee, I wonder why.
From the celebrated Human Rights ruling that allowed the first Sikh RCMP officer to wear a turban, we have a long line of decisions nationally and locally (Gurbax Singh Malhi was, in fact, the first MP to wear a turban in the House of Commons) that support the wearing of religious symbols, as long as they do not endanger anyone.
Of course, safety is in the eye of the beholder. Do we not remember the instructional case of Pardeep Singh Nagra, the former diversity officer at the University of Toronto Mississauga and Ontario amateur lightweight boxing champ? He refused to shave his beard and fought a long legal and Human Rights battle, including court injunctions, until the Canadian Amateur Boxing Association changed its rules.
Can’t you just hear the referee saying, “OK gentlemen, I want you to fight a clean fight: no kidney punches, no rabbit punches and no whisker rubs!”
Even more celebrated was the case of the kirpan in Peel’s public schools. In that case, the Peel District Board refused to allow the ceremonial knife to be worn. Eventually the case went to the Ontario Human Rights Commission which ruled that a dagger, limited in size, could be worn in a secured sheath, concealed under clothing.
The issue raised a huge fuss at the time but I’d venture to say that a whole new generation of Mississaugans doesn’t even know the policy exists.
Which proves that it was never such a big deal in the first place.
Let’s put Asmahan back on the field where she belongs, give Premier Jean Charest sensitivity training and make the (protective) hijab mandatory for that head-butting honcho, Zinedine Zidane.