Human Safety
How much are we prepared to give up for human safety? To what extent do we want to protect each other and how does it feel when you have to pretend you have a different gender. A bizarre incident in the international news has struck me. This picture also takes other people into the world of so-called human safety. To the world where one is willing to cross the borders. Without fear of going further into the hands of laws because it is “game” and because there is no realistic story behind it.
Last November there was the bizarre news that the head coach of the Kabaddi team from the Thai women was caught wearing a headscarf to gain access to one of the matches in which the Iranian women’s team participated. According to Iranian law, when it comes to men’s and women’s sports competitions, no man can participate in a competition in which women participate. The reason for this is the safety of women.
Reports show that the coach entered the field of the contest and wore two different headscarves to adapt to the other women in the neighbourhood. The act was strongly condemned by the local sports authority and the Iranian Federation, which found it a gross violation of the rules of the host country of the Asian Kabaddi Championships, which ended on Sunday, November 29th.
The idea that we are protecting each other in the name of women’s safety leads me to dive deeper into the subject and I wonder first of all: what do we mean by safety?
