A Winnipeg girl who was banned from a judo tournament for wearing her traditional Muslim headscarf is starting a petition to have the rules changed.
Hagar Outbih burst into tears when officials with Judo Manitoba told the 11-year-old she would not be able to compete in a tournament on Saturday while covered by her hijab.
A lawyer representing the national organization Judo Canada said the decision is consistent with the International Judo Federation's safety guidelines.
"There might be a situation where someone has an unfair advantage by having an extra piece of garment to hold on to," Telly Mercury told CBC News.
"So we've discussed this both locally, nationally and internationally and we follow those rules. It's got nothing to do with discrimination or anything of that nature."
But Hagar's coach, Shirin Farag, said she has worn her own hijab in judo competitions for the past 10 years without any problems.
In Egypt, Morocco and Algeria, she said, many women compete while wearing their headscarves.
"I don't think that accidents happen from wearing hijab," Farag said.
"The only thing that worries me is if the hijab comes off. But from the safety issue, maybe it looks not safe to [officials] but maybe they need to try it and put it through an experiment with players and see if it is safe or not safe."
Hagar has responded to the decision by circulating a petition that advocates for a change in the rules to allow women to wear the hijab while competing.
Female Muslim athletes in Quebec lost a similar case in May when the World Taekwondo Federation upheld a provincial decision that women garbed in the hijab would not be allowed to compete.
A coach withdrew her girls team from a Longueuil, Que., taekwondo tournament a month earlier when she was told its Muslim members would not be allowed to compete while wearing hijabs.
In a letter to its Canadian counterpart, the world federation said that because it does not recognize any religion, it would not accommodate hijabs or any other headcovering. Anything other than protective headgear remained forbidden.
With files from the Canadian PressRelated
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