The Egyptian runner, Basant Hamida, said that she had followed up during the past few days the controversy surrounding her dress in the Mediterranean Games, currently being held in the Algerian city of Oran.
In an interview with Al-Hurra, she confirmed that “the uniforms worn by athletes, especially in athletics, are not optional for them, as there are specific regulatory rules that govern this matter, and they are among the basics of the game.”
Hamida won two gold medals in the 100 and 200 meters running competitions at the Mediterranean Games, setting a record in her name in the championship competitions, as she achieved a time of 11.10 seconds in the 100 meters competitions, and 22.47 seconds in the 200 meters competitions, becoming the first Egyptian runner in history Check those numbers.
The attack was not limited to the Egyptian heroine at the limit of sports dress, but the arrows of criticism also extended to the fact of her prostration after she was crowned with the first gold medal in enemy clothes, while some on the media considered that this “reveals the nakedness”, while many responded to those comments, stressing the need for attention Do it and stop such abusive criticism.
For her part, Hamida said that “the prostration was a spontaneous act after the coronation, because she had gone through many difficulties over the past years, depriving her of participating in the recent Tokyo Olympics, due to injury, and she also did not know if she would participate in the Mediterranean Games, due to an injury she sustained.” Recently, a few days before the tournament, and therefore she wanted with her prostration to thank God for his success and compensation for the coronation with gold, after she went through it, and she did not think about what to wear or where to prostrate.
Basant described her relationship with God as a special relationship like any human being, as she “always talks to him in her prayers and asks for success, and intensifies her prayers while warming up before participating in the races, and she was crying before the championship for fear of not catching up with her.”
The Egyptian runner received a great reception upon her return from Algeria a few hours ago, after she was crowned with two gold medals, achieving a new achievement for Egyptian sports, which she said was “a great compensation for her efforts during the past years and the bad luck that afflicted her and prevented her from participating in the Tokyo Olympics competitions, just three days before She traveled to the tournament because of a muscle strain she had, which caused her to miss the tournament.”
Basant concluded by saying that she “understands the nature of some people because of the eastern and Islamic nature, but this is not optional for athletes.”
In recent weeks in Egypt, there has been a noticeable increase in the controversy regarding the return of what women and girls are exposed to, even if at the sporting level, to their clothes, even if they were the ones who were abused and violence, as happened in the massacre of a female student in front of her university building in the city of Mansoura in the Delta of Egypt.
Hossam El-Wasimi, Professor of Psychology at the National Center for Social Research, believes that what is happening is “a natural result of cultural and religious concepts that are alien to the reality of Egyptian society, spanning several decades and affecting many people.”
Al-Wasimi told Al-Hurra website that “the owners of these ideas consider women to be taboo and put their own perception of her, and everything that contradicts it is disobedient or infidel, and with the increase of social networking sites and the ease of access to larger segments of citizens, the range of those who hold these ideas has expanded.”
He explained, “They will always look for something in the woman to criticize and attack her. If the sports heroine was veiled, they would talk about wearing tight clothes, and if her clothes were loose, they would talk about leaving the house basically as forbidden, or at least undesirable.”
He attributed this method of dealing to “the principle of the owners of strict religious currents in monopolizing religion and the truth. What they see is religion and it is the right thing without others, even if the person with the opinion that disagrees with them is a cleric or belongs to a historical religious institution.”
He pointed out that “there is another current in Egypt that is not religious and is considered extremist in its comments and vision of women, and it is the current that calls for banning the veil and preventing veiled women from entering clubs, beaches, etc., and between the polarization of these two currents, many Egyptians fall prey to intellectual extremism that has not existed in society for centuries. ago.”
Al-Wasimi concluded by saying that “the way out of the impasse of these ideas will not be unless they are trapped in their beginnings in schools and universities, so that the values of pluralism, personal freedom and women’s freedom can be enhanced, and to confront extremist ideas from human and social angles that help overcome this growing pattern of thinking, in addition to the importance of Renewing religious discourse and changing the behavior of the preachers and preachers themselves, who can sometimes have extremist tendencies, are transmitted to the public.”
The Egyptian champion Basant Hemida wins the gold medal in the Women’s 200 meter sprint race at the Mediterranean Games ????????????✌️????♀️#Egypt #JMOran2022| #Egypt #basant_hamida pic.twitter.com/p3u5fsJpMh
— Egypt Today Magazine (@EgyptTodayMag) July 3, 2022
Although the Egyptian player was accompanied by her husband during the Mediterranean Games, as he was her coach, this did not prevent the attack on her, which prompted many to support her and urged her not to pay attention to such voices.
In her interview with Al-Hurra, the player said, “Her husband, Muhammad Abbas, is her coach, and he has great credit for her in reaching a level that qualifies her to achieve gold medals in major tournaments, with the moral and technical support he provides, during training in particular and in life in general.”
Dr. Khaled Abdel-Fattah, Head of the Sociology Department at Helwan University, believes that “the exaggerated interest in women’s dress in Egypt and the attack on them is caused by the presence of remnants of extremist religious currents that persisted in Egypt for years, before the Egyptian state worked to get rid of them over the past years.”
“Some elements of these religious groups are trying to exploit such events to create distraction issues through social media, with issues that are not of interest to Egyptians,” he said.
He pointed out that “people in Egypt, whether in villages or cities, represent a tolerant society that is not preoccupied with what women wear in this crude way and they have priorities in life and livelihood, but extremist religious currents make of these events phenomena through social media.”