Kuwait Times

Published Date: February 23, 2010
By Khaled Abdullah, Staff Writer

ABU DHABI: Kuwaiti Islamists yesterday demanded the minister of social affairs and labor to open a full-scale investigation into the Kuwait women football team's participation in an Asian championship in Abu Dhabi. The team, participating in such an event for the first time, lost to the Palestinian team 0-17. "The minister should investigate and punish officials responsible for the participation of the women's team," Islamist MP Mohammed Hayef said after the match.

The 3rd West Asian Women Soccer Tournament is being hosted by the United Arab Emirates from Feb 20-28. Chairperson of Kuwaiti Women Soccer Committee Sheikha Naemah Ahmad Al-Sabah selected members of the team to represent Kuwait in the competition, held for the first time in the region.

This is also the first time for a Kuwaiti women's team to participate in a women's football tournament. The Kuwaiti women's squad is in Group B with UAE and Palestine. The top two teams from each group moves on to the second round. Jordan are titleholders of the 2005 and 2007 editions of the event which was held in Amman.

Although a relatively new sport in Kuwait, women's football is gaining increasing popularity among players and fans in the country, in the face of Islamist opposition which stands against any outdoor sports activity for women. The defeat in their first match in Group B came as an unprecedented embarrassment for the Kuwaiti team.

Liberal Kuwaiti lawmaker Aseel Al-Awadhi defied Islamist MPs' opposition to women's sports. "Women have the right to play any sports at a competitive level. Neither legislators nor anyone else, excluding parents, reserve the right to subject women to any type of restraint or custodianship," she said. Awadhi also rejected MP Hayef's statement, saying that if the lawmaker wants to hold the minister politically responsible for Kuwait's participation in the tournament, "he better hold him accountable for the l
ow performance level of the national women soccer squad and his neglect towards women sports in general.

Meanwhile, MP Waleed Al-Tabtabaei denounced the participation of the women's team in the championship, adding that such a participation is against sharia. "The participation of the women's team in a tournament outside the country defies the teachings of Islam and is against the nature and physique of women," the Islamist lawmaker said.