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UK Sikhs fight ban on bearded
boxers
LONDON: Sikh
groups in Britain have threatened "costly" legal action over an
order banning bearded amateur boxers from the ring. Muslims
expressed outrage after the Amateur Boxing Association of England
(ABAE) barred 25-year-old bearded boxer Mohammed Patel from the ring
last January on health and safety grounds.
At the time the
ABAE ruling exempted Sikhs from the ban, further infuriating
Muslims, but the body has now ruled that all amateur boxers must be
clean-shaven, prompting Sikhs to join in the protest.
"It is
unbelievably insensitive and grossly insulting. It is also offensive
to our Muslim brothers who wear beards for religious reasons," said
Indarjit Singh, director of the Network of Sikh Organisations.
"We request that
the ABAE rescind their new ruling. Failure to do so will result in
legal action which, as well as being costly, will do untold damage
to the public image of the ABAE and boxing in general."
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"It is
unbelievably insensitive and grossly insulting. It is also offensive
to our Muslim brothers who wear beards for religious reasons." |
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"It's such a
petty go at the beard. It's a sport and it has some risks but the
hair does not in any way increase those risks," he added.
The
International Boxing Association says referees need to see facial
injuries during a fight, that beards can cause further abrasion and
that doctors find it easier to treat facial injuries on clean-shaven
men.
The ban is also
being challenged by Muslims group in the town of Bolton in northwest
England, where banned boxer Mohammed Patel comes from.
"Mohammed was
actually very upset," Inayat Omarji of the Bolton Council of Mosques
told the BBC.
"It has raised
the awareness of different people who have different religious
commitments, cultural commitments. And in this day and age, they
have to accept and work with the different communities."
An ABAE
spokesman said the ruling has come from its international governing
body, the International Amateur Boxing Association.
"It has nothing
to do with race, only health and safety. Cuts aren't allowed in
amateur, Olympic-style, boxing. We are completely different to the
professional circuit."
"It's not
unusual for a boxer to be told to shave right up until weigh-in
time," he added
20
January 2010
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