Badminton Association of Malaysia denies Islamic party boycott call on skirt rule – Badminton news
The Badminton Association of Malaysia has brushed aside the boycott calls made by an Islamic group and has said that they do not have any issues with the new female clothing rule.
The Badminton World Federation was already facing objections about the skirt rule from different badminton bodies around the world including China, India, Indonesia and the Scandinavian countries.
The latest objection came from a conservative Islamic party called the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) on Monday, May 9, 2011 after the federation made the rule mandatory for the female shuttlers from June 1. The PAS urged all the national women players
to boycott the upcoming major event of Singapore Open 2011 as a protest against the rule.
Kamaruzaman Mohamad, a youth chief in the party stated, “PAS considers the rule... discriminatory as it will prevent Muslim players from competing, since exposing their flesh is against their beliefs. If BWF insists it will proceed with the rule, PAS urges
the Badminton Association of Malaysia to boycott the Singapore Open.”
However, the BAM opposed the party declaration. It brushed aside their claim after saying that they do not follow any of the statements made by the PAS and has no concerns regarding the new clothing rule.
General Manager of the BAM Kenny Goh said, “At the moment we have no plans to boycott any tournaments. It is not a big matter for us. Malaysian players wear either skirts or shorts and are comfortable with their attire.”
The Li-Ning Singapore Open 2011 will run from June 14-19, 2011 with the new clothing compulsory for women shuttlers. It was first made mandatory on May 1 but after objections from several badminton boards, the BWF deferred the decision to June 1.
On the other hand, world number nine Denmark’s Tine Baun stated that the clothing should be the personal choice of players. She added that every player knows his or her comfort level and no one should be allowed to decide what is good or bad for them.
Meanwhile, the Badminton World Federation is still defending the new rule that compels female shuttlers to wear skirt during the play. They say that the clothing rule has been misinterpreted as they only wanted to differentiate the women’s game regardless
of any attempt to portray women as s*x symbols.
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