Hiiraan Online
Thursday, December 22, 2016
Photo Hana Mire, Awesome Without Borders
Garowe (HOL) - The leader of group of Somali clerics has publicly criticized the participation of female athletes in a nation wide basketball tournament that's scheduled to begin today in Garowe.
The inaugural tournament will see female teams from all over Somalia battle it out on the court for the honour of being the nation's top team.
Sheikh Bashir Ahmed Salaad, the chairman of the Somali cleric's organization denounced the tournament and warned that the tournament is an act of disobedience against Allah.
'We are issuing a warning against female sports. It is not something permissible by the Islamic religion. It can lead to negative consequences religiously and culturally. To watch ladies jumping wearing sports clothes or to be watched by foreign men is not something tolerable by the Islamic religion. It is something that contradicts (Islamic) value'. Sheikh Bashir said.
The Sheikh reiterated that the tournament can lead destruction and moral decay. He dismissed the event as nothing more than a gathering for disobedience.
In the past, the group controversially criticized the law that would see equal rights granted to women as well as a law allocating 30 percent of seats for women.
Female basketball teams from Hirshabelle and Banadir region are scheduled to play the historic first match this afternoon.