By Andrew Warshaw
June 5 – An unusual and unsavoury row has broken out in the Canadian province of Quebec with the region’s football federation pledging to uphold its ban on young Sikh players wearing turbans and warning that those who don’t obey the rules can “play in their backyards”.
In a dispute reminiscent of the headscarf debate in women’s football, Quebec Football Federation executive director, Brigitte Frot, says her organisation takes safety too seriously to lift the turban ban and will only change its stance if ordered to do so by FIFA. “They can play in their backyard but not with official referees, not in the official rules of soccer,” she said.
After considerable pressure, football’s lawmakers last year authorised Muslim women across the world to wear the hijab in official competition and Frot wants the same procedure to apply for turbans. “FIFA made a trial period to make sure the equipment that is required for the girls is correct,” she said.
A spokesman for the World Sikh Organisation of Canada, Balpreet Singh, warned Quebec faced becoming pariahs in the game. “It seems like an unnecessary hassle to have to go all the way to FIFA in order for FIFA to rule that six and seven-year-old children can’t play with their turbans,” said Singh.
But Frot told reporters the federation had not conducted safety studies on turbans as it did not have sufficient funds. “The point is we don’t know and because we don’t know we don’t want to take any chances,” she said.
French-speaking Quebec is the only provincial organisation in the country to outlaw the turban. Canadian Member of Parliament Parm Gill, an Indian Canadian, criticised the move. “It is incredibly unfortunate and insulting that, in a nation that prides itself on diversity, such discriminatory regulations are allowed to stand,” he said. “There is no valid reason for a ban on the wearing of turbans or other religious symbols during athletic competitions.”
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