High School Track Star Alleges Religious Discrimination
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A DC track and field star says she’s been the victim of religious discrimination. Officials at the Montgomery Invitational track meet told Juashaunna Kelly she had to remove her Muslim head covering if she wanted to compete.
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Since her sophomore year at Roosevelt, Juashaunna has worn a custom made suit that covers her head and neck as required by her faith. But officials at the prestigious indoor track told her it violated the rules. “And I told her, I’ve been wearing it for three years, why can’t I wear it now?”
“I said doing that would be almost like me sending her out there buck naked,” says Roosevelt track coach Anthony Bowden. “I can’t do that.”
Track meet director Tom Rogers insists it had nothing to do with what Juashaunna was wearing on her head. He says lots of runners wear hejabs. One was even officiating at the meet. He says it has to do with what was under her uniform. Association rules require undergarments be one single solid color.
{snip}
Juashaunna’s convinced she missed a chance to shine for college scouts. There “was a lot of recruiters at this meet,” she says.
{snip}
The track meet is sponsored by Montgomery County Schools. Its director says a sanctioned meet has to follow the rules set up by the National Federation of State High School Associations.
(Posted on January 16, 2008)
Comments
What’s next?
Islamic women demanding to be fully clothed as they try out for the swim team?
Posted by Dennis at 5:21 PM on January 16
If she was as serious about Track and Field as she is about Islam then she would lose the robes and some precious seconds off her time. My guess is that she is NOT on a relay team. The other three wouldn`t abide by her decision to honor God and BuddyF&*$ her team mates. ALso unless that thing is stapled to her neck it will be an interference to the runners beside and behind her. Finally, in a two legged horse race, visual cues are everything. When and where to explode, (no pun intended) when your opponent is spent and when he gives that backward glance before he cuts to the inside lane like he did the week before. If she is recieving visual cues but not giving them she is at an advantage, strategy wise…
Posted by Tim 1:59:05 Mc Hugh at 5:36 PM on January 16
Just don’t bend the rules for these Islamics; that’s what they are counting on to gain power!
Posted by at 6:08 PM on January 16
She has to wear this special suit to comply with her particular sect of Islam (I understand this demand upon girls and women is not universal in Islam). But one of the distinguishing necessities of competitive team athletics is the locker room and group communal showers. I understand that certain Muslims are religiously prohibited from doing that. So how does this apply to her? Either there were other accommodations made for her in this regard, or she didn’t heed the rules of Islam.
Posted by St. Louis CofCC Blogmeister at 6:29 PM on January 16
I bet her competitors would have jumped at the chance to compete with her. When victors are determined by milliseconds the wind drag on her head covering would hand an easy victory to the opponent.
Posted by Civilized Neighbor at 6:31 PM on January 16
I watched the video—she isn’t that fast. And I noticed they hid most of her outfit with a warm up suit.
Posted by RobertB at 7:00 PM on January 16
They should have never let her on the team but them they cave into people like this….this is not America anymore!!
Posted by lydia at 8:04 PM on January 16
I don’t even think it’s a religious thing for most of these types; I think they’re just attention-seeking weirdos. Why would someone walk around a Western town or city with a burka on their head, inviting stares and smirks from countless strangers, unless they secretly thrived on the attention?
Posted by at 9:14 PM on January 16
The Federal Courts will rule that since Moslems must be protected and have a level playing field, everyone on the team must wear Moslem garb. On swim teams every competetor must be fully clothed. Its only fair and its the law.
Posted by the Soviet Republic of New Jersey at 11:44 PM on January 16
The solution to this problem is obvious. She should move to Saudi Arabia and compete on their track team.
Posted by at 11:54 PM on January 16
I really don’t have a problem with her dressing as her religion dictates and would like to see less religious discrimination for all of us by the darn paranoid atheists.
Posted by pat at 12:07 AM on January 17
Yep! Let her compete in a Muslim nation — oh wait - she can’t… there is NO place for them among us, ever
Posted by cartman at 12:56 AM on January 17
Anybody watching the video can tell one thing right away, this girl is not college material.
Posted by Cliff Yablonski at 8:18 AM on January 17
I have a couple of points:
1. Neither this girl, nor her mother, seem to me to be recent immigrants from an Islamic nation. I suspect that they are American converts to Islam, but of course I could be wrong. If I am right, however, this means that we are not talking about Muslim immigrants arrive demanding cultural or religious concessions, but instead native born Americans trying to be “more Muslim” than many Muslim immigrants tend to be.
2. My daughter play sports at the high school level. While I greatly dislike the very tight fitting and sometimes highly revealing uniforms their coaches choose for them (e.g. tight, low cut spandex shorts with tight t-shirts for volleyball), this remains the standard at every high-school and college.
3. At my daughter’s high school and my son’s college, there is an interesting phenomenon! All of the muslim boys and girls, as well as the hindus, conform to the standard and wear what everyone else wears. While some Muslim females at both of my children’s schools choose to wear a tight, spandex head covering like the girl in this video does, I have yet to see a single instance of a female Muslim immigrant from an Islamic nation wearing a full body suit for track and field events. They conform, often against their parent’s/family’s wishes, to the accepted standard of athletic attire.
4. What I have witnessed is some Muslim females wearing a very tight-fitting body suit that also covers their heads during swimming competitions, but they are not nearly as loose fitting or multi-colored as the one this girl wears.
Posted by ktx at 11:48 AM on January 17
Okay Harriers,
I`ve taken a second, closer look at the situation. The Hood doesn`t seem to me to either advantage or disadvantage her or her competitors. The issue must be one of her wearing a two color undergarmet like the judges said. In a close race with no cameras, wearing an undergarmet NOT OF YOUR TEAMS COLORS may confuse the judges at the finish line. Not a good idea if one plans on winning. Think of a Ferrari crossing the line at LeMans in red AND Blue and Yellow… Was it the Italian team or the French or what?!?!
Posted by Tim Mc Hugh at 12:00 PM on January 17
Seems like there are a lot of misconceptions here, if she is a “cross country runner” that is long distance running, generally meaning 5 kilometer or more races. As a bona fide cross country star, (well maybe not but I ran on the varsity team of a pretty competative high school team for 3 years) I can assure you speed isn’t that important as it is generally a test of stamina. The fact that she isn’t all that fast of a sprinter doesn’t really tell you anything.
Wearing unnecessary clothing, however, generally will cause you to overheat, however, causing faster exhaustion. None of my teammates would even wear tights when the temperature dropped into the 20s or 30s since you heat up so fast. However, she is in DC, and I don’t think there are a whole lot of competitive cross country teams coming out of DC. In my high school cross country days, which weren’t that long ago actually, it is probably the whitest sport there is except maybe swimming or tennis. It really isn’t glamorous at all, and it takes long hours of practice and intense determination.
Posted by at 1:15 PM on January 17
Our country, our rules. That’s the way it should have always been(not to sound too ethnocentric).
Posted by GAonMYmind at 9:28 PM on January 25