I was a senior in high school in 1986. One of the special events was a men's 100 meter dash featuring former world record holder Calvin Smith. Danny Harris (best known for breaking Edwin Moses's incredible winning streak in the 400 meter hurdles and winning silver in the '84 Olypmics) ran as well.
The race I am going to focus on here is the women's 400 meter hurdles which featured '84 Olypmic Champion Nawal el Moutawakel from Morocco. She ran, a great race of course, and won going away.
Now to the cool part. Turns out Nawal (I am not going to repeatedly butcher her last name) knew the people sitting next to us in the stands. After the race she comes up and sits right next to me! She was friendly, gracious and had no problems talking to a bunch of high school boys. Nawal sat there and chatted with us for quite a while, even staying after her friends left (and she hadn't showered yet and was still wearing her running gear!) She even signed my ticket stub.
Now this was a really cool event, but I really didn't know much about her at the time. What I learned later made it even more interesting.
Turns out she was the first woman from an Islamic country to win a gold medal in the Olympics. Being that young and growing up in Iowa, my knowledge of Islam was probably limited to the fact that Indian Jones sidekick was a Muslim. I had no idea she was or that she really broke a major gender barrier in the Islamic world. If I was able to sit down and chat with her today, the conversation would be very different!
She is still very active in track and field, not as an athlete but in various governing functions at the international level. I read about her occasionally in Runner's World as she weighs in on issues affecting the sport.
Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera with me that day to capture the moment. I just have my signed ticket stub that I can proudly show off and remember that day.
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4 comments:
That was very gracious of her, hale. She sounds like an interesting person.
I really don't know that much about Islam. Are women considered inferior to men? Is that part of the religion, or is that a separate, cultural thing?
Well, I don't know if women are considered inferior, but based on how they are treated in many Islamic countries, I have my opinions on the matter. I have heard the laws defended as "protecting" women, but I don't buy that. You need to remember that there are many different sects of Islam (something some people forgot when we invaded Iraq) and some countries are much less oppressive than others. I am not sure what is the dominant sect in Morocco.
But I honestly didn't know she was Muslim. No head covering...she just looked like an amazing professional athlete that blew me away.
Yeah, I think the head covering is something that also varies by country and/or sect.
I was showing my American bias, I guess, judging how some treat their women as "inferior."
Actually, orbs, there are many African and Middle Eastern cultures that follow that thought process. Women are property. Women are beaten, and some are actually subject to surgical mutilation to keep them "pure."
Broad generalizations are never correct, as pointed out... not everyone follows the same theories. We are making advances around the world, but, even here, women still are not equal when it comes to some things.
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