U.S. sends women’s badminton team to Iran

In what may be referred to as badminton diplomacy, the Obama administration is sending a women’s badminton team to Iran this week as part of a broad bid to engage the Iranian people through educational and cultural exchanges.

The 12-member team — four coaches and eight female players including 2008 U.S. Olympians Eva Lee (Orange, Calif.) and Mesinee “May” Mangkalakiri (Garden Grove, Calif.) will travel to Tehran, Iran to compete in the Fajr International Badminton Tournament, February 5-8, 2009, at the invitation of the Iranian Badminton Federation, the State Department said in a statement.

It said the U.S. squad was invited by the Iranian Badminton Federation and that they hoped to extend an invitation to Iran’s national team to come to the United States in July. This week’s trip is being sponsored by the State Department, which since 2006 has promoted people-to-people exchanges with Iran.

The United States cut diplomatic ties with Tehran during the 1979-1981 hostage crisis in which a group of militant Iranian students held 52 U.S. diplomats hostage at the U.S. embassy in Tehran for 444 days.

The nations have remained at odds over many issues, including U.S. accusations that Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons, but in an effort to pursue greater engagement, the two countries have held sports exchanges in recent years.

More than 250 Iranians, including artists, athletes, and medical professionals, have participated in exchange programs in the United States, the department said.

Previous sports exchanges, which started in Jan. 2007, have included wrestlers and weightlifters as well as basketball, table tennis and water polo players. Since then, the department has sent 32 American athletes to Iran and brought 75 Iranian athletes and coaches to the United States, it said.

The badminton trip is the first to take place under the Obama administration, which is considering new approaches to Iran. Those include direct official dialogue and the appointment of a special envoy to deal with Iran, which has not had diplomatic relations with the U.S. since 1979.

The event is sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) and results will count toward each player’s international ranking.

Anyone remember Ping Pong diplomacy?

UPDATE: U.S. Women’s Badminton Team refused visas to enter Iran.

Iranian women skiers to participate in Olympics

October 23, 2008 – Iran’s women skiers will take part in the winter Olympic for the first time, the Mehr News Agency (MNA) reported.

Iranian women will participate in the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. They took part in the ski on grass held in Tehran and Lebanon’s Asian junior championship both last year, snatching gold and silver medals, said the president of the Iranian Ski Federation.

Iran had two ski coaches after Iran’s revolution but 500 coaches work in the country at the present, Isa Saveh Shemshaki added.

It may be uphill for the skiers from Iran, who aren’t as well known as other international competitors.  But skiing is a popular sport in Iran and there are some great resorts near Tehran where skiers can train.

Situated in the Alborz mountain range near the peak of Damavand (a giant dormant volcano), the Dizin ski resort is Iran’s highest in altitude. Coming in at almost 14,000 feet Dizin is currently the largest ski resort in the Middle East. Shemshak is the host to the nation’s hardest and the steepest slopes

Until recently, ski slopes were segregated, with women skiing on one side and men the other.  It is still illegal for men and women to ride a lift together or share a gondola.  And of course women must remain covered which shouldn’t be much of a problem on the slopes. 

The announcement that women skiers will participate in the Olymics is good news and definitely a step in the right direction. Bring it on girls.

FYI: If you’re interested in learning more about how Muslim women are taking up sports, check out this paper on Islam and Women’s Sports.

The 2010 Olympic Winter Games will be staged in Vancouver and Whistler from February 12 to 28, 2010.

In the news . . .

July 24, 2008 – We don’t write this news; we just link to it. Here’s a round-up of a articles we came across this week you may find interesting. 

Beach volleyball may be next NCAA sport for women though it will be called “sand” volleyball so landlocked schools still feel like they can participate.  It is being recommended that the NCAA put the sport on the “emerging sports for women” list.  Right now, indoor volleyball is the No. 2 women’s sport in the NCAA, second only to basketball, with 992 of the 1,064 member schools fielding teams.

Swimmer Jessica Hardy tests positive - controversey reigns before the Summer Games even begin as Hardy tests positive for a banned substance, leaving her just two weeks to pursue any appeals before the Beijing Games begin.

Tehran debates breaking dress code to broadcast women at Olympics - There are just three women among the 53 Iranian athletes who will compete in the Beijing Olympics (in rowing, archery, and tae kwon do). While these women play sports dressed in the traditional hijab, their international competitors do not — and therefore cannot be shown in Iranian broadcasts. Millions of Iranian viewers would like to cheer on their female athletes but it’s still a question whether the government will allow the events to be televised. 

Chow returning to China as U.S. women’s gymnastics coach - Liang Chow, once a celebrated member of the Chinese national gymnastics team, will return to his native city of Beijing for the first time in 17 years proudly wearing red, white and blue. After coaching Shawn Johnson to a number of world and national titles, the Des Moines resident was named head coach of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team this week.

Football Under Cover

April 12, 2008 – One of the highlights of the recent  Berlin Film Festival was a documentary called “Football Under Cover” about a women’s soccer match played in Tehran between Iranian and German teams in 2006. 

Filmmaker Ajat Najafi and his German colleague David Assmann’s directed the project, whose title refers to the fact that both teams had to cover up during the match - even though men weren’t allowed into the stadium.

From the Berlin programme comes this synopsis: 

Iran’s national women’s team and a local Berlin women’s football team are playing their first official friendly match – before a crowd of more than a thousand cheering women. The atmosphere at the stadium is electric and super-charged with girl power. Outside the stadium, a few men peer through the fencing, trying to catch a glimpse of the proceedings, because on this day, men are barred from the game.Although their only desire was to play football together, it has taken the young women of both teams a whole year of bitter struggle to get where they are today. Theirs has been a battle against testosterone, arbitrariness and oppression. This film follows Marlene, left-back of the Kreuzberg club BSV AL-Dersimpor, and Iranian player Niloofar on their journey. The girls don’t just want to play a game; they want to get to know each other.

In spite of the game being postponed time and again, and the fact that the women are not able to play in Asia’s largest football stadium as planned, but on a dried up old pitch; and although Niloofar is forbidden from taking part in the game – for reasons which nobody understands – the girls refuse to be browbeaten. And, when the big day arrives, there’s singing and dancing on the grandstands. This 90-minute film is more than just a football game. The desire for self-determination and equality is being expressed here and, one thing is clear – change is possible.

If you’re interested in the topic, you might want to also check out Offside, director Jafar Panahi’s offbeat tale about a group of Iranian girls who find themselves arrested after posing as boys to sneak into a soccer stadium to see a key international qualifying match. The film, apparently inspired by the director’s daughter, won the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival Grand Jury Prize in 2006.

Hollywood Reporter Review

Intrepid Iranians – teen girls learn kayaking in the U.S.

Check out this Al Jezeera Report on Iranian teens who have been training at various locations in the United States including Colorado, North Carolina, and the Washington, DC area.