By Maryam Majd/ Please see it HERE

From 45 participants the league only 5 women were present in the 8th week. They have never had a club like men bowlers or a coach. Shadi Kiaye, 22, is one of the five girls. She is at the end of the chart but she seems relax. She just started bowling 7 months ago. Strangely she got her BA in Political Sciences. She studies French to go to Belgium in three months.

Fatemeh Hokmelahy, is another female bowler. She is 29 and because of her age she could not join the national team. She was a referee in last year’s bowling league. Although new in bowling Fatemeh is one of the oldest members of Iran women’s fencing team. She is a four time national champion in fencing. She says “ I like bowling and that’s why I do it.”

Maryam Asadynia, is also participating in the league. She has a nice style and she is very expereiecned. She is on the head of the chart. She explains, “I don’t have a coach, I learned by looking at people who play bowling.” Somayeh is the other girl. She refused an interview saying, “ I didn’t perform good today, I am not in the mood.”

All these women got into bowling because they work at bowling ally in an amusement park in Tehran. Their job enables them to use the tracks 2 hours a day with out charge.

The champion of the women’s bowling league is Mahshid Poursartip. She is a national team member and her rank is higher than all men except for her coach. She says, “ I don’t care being having the first palace in women’s team my main opponent is absent today. I am happy to have the 8th place in men’s. Like others Mahshid thinks that bowling in Iran is for wealthier people. The expenses are really high. Mahshid explains, “I bought these balls for 200 thousand Tomans from Malaysia. In Iran they are each 300 thousands.”

The competition is over: Mahshid gets her prize, Maryam Asady is second Somayeh is third Fatemeh Hakimelahy stands in the fourth place and Shady has the fifth place.

The first international squash match that the women’s national team will participate in will be held at the end of January in India. It is said that the design has the approval of the International competition committee.

Najmeh alsadat Kashefy, the head coach of women’s team said, “ We are going to practice with this outfit so we are ready for the Asian games in India.”

The deputy manager of Tracks and Field federation, Azardokht Niazzadeh, said, “we were able to get a positive reaction of the officials towards trail running. We didn’t have female juniors team. We formed a national team by inviting the best twenty runners in the field.

we have a short time to prepare. We have two teams each with four runners, femal’s adult team and a youth team in Asian championship in Bahrain.”

In the fist week after his visit to Iran he went to Bandar Nzaly, a port city in north of Iran to see the practice place of the rowing team. Nasim Benyaghoub, a member of the women’s team said, “ Bart is a great coach and he has a very tight schedule for the team. It is good to have a separate coach only for women’s team.”

.... Mr. Entezar Ghaem, the founder of this athletic school has put more that 4 milliard Tomans of his personal wealth in flourishing this institute. Single handedly he is hoping to change the atmosphere of women’s sports.

He believes that any successful and positive change in the culture and society should begin with changes in women’s situations. Entezar Ghaem explains, “One of the reasons that the Entezar Ghaem institute was crowded and popular was the fact that all members of a family could use it together, but the regulation changed.”

One of the worst problems of women’s sports in Yazd is the lack of athletic facilities, Entezar Ghaem was filling that gap but now the institute is almost deserted. The regulation change and the hours limits forces women to use the place only during the day and since it gets really hot during the day less people show up for practices.

One of the brilliant ideas in Entezar Ghaem was its Kitchen; healthy food for healthy body. But the huge and sparkly kitchen is empty. One of the few sports facilities in Iran is now deserted. Entezar Ghaem hope to regain it customers soon before he gets forced to close the place down entirely.

..... In Paralympics China won 211 medals, 82 of the athletes wining medals were women; England won 102 medals 30 of them by female athletes, and US won 99 medals 60 by women athletes. Muslim sportswomen became the center of attention in 2008 Olympics. Only four Muslim countries, Qatar, Brunei, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, didn’t have any female athletes in their Olympic Caravan. African countries had the highest number of female athletes. Morocco had 11 female athletes in its 38-athlete Olympic caravan.

Among the four Muslim countries, which had no female athletes, Saudi and Brunei didn’t send their female athletes because of their excessively traditional public. The poor conditions of women’s sports in these two countries made Ali Al-Ahmed, the head of Persian Golf Institution in Washington DC to address this issue and highlight it by pressuring the countries’ governments.

In his article for Herald Tribune on May 19, 2008, Ali Al-Ahmed wrote, “The procession of the Olympic torch drew protests from Paris to San Francisco over China’s treatment of the Tibetan people, but no one has protested another tragedy that is afflicting millions of women in Saudi Arabia, Iran and other Muslim countries. Many Muslim women dare not even dream of the Olympics because their countries ban female sports altogether or severely restrict the athletic activities of the "weaker sex."

Al-Ahmed’s article titled ‘Bar countries that ban women athletes’ indeed suggests that The IOC should suspend the membership of the countries that precluding women from participation in the Olympic Games, until the time that equal opportunity to participate in Olympics is given to women.

The radical attitude that is forced on women’s sports by the governments of Islamic countries is not limited to Olympics. In an international conference focusing on the physical and athletic education of Muslim Women in Oman, 17 experts and specialists in women’s sports addressed those problems in women’s sports that derive from cultural traditions, hoping to find better ways to resolve the limitations of such. One of the sad examples of the social and cultural limitations for Muslim female athletes was the case of the 19 year old Mehboba Ahdyar, an Afghan Runner qualified for 2008 Olympics; she disappeared before Olympics games and after a while she contacted her coach and informed the officials that she took refuge to Norway because of the many death threats she has received from the Islamic fanatic groups.

Of course a couple of Islamic fundamentalists and extremists are not the representatives of all Muslim countries. There are many Muslim females athletes who are regarded as legends by both the governments and the people of their countries. Female athletes such as Nawal El Moutawakel, the first Muslim and first African female Olympic champion. In 2007, El Moutawakel was named the Minister of Sports in the upcoming cabinet of Morocco, are the best examples of the progressive views in Women’s sports in Islamic countries. Billie Jean King, the legendary tennis player is an activist in women’s sports in developing countries.

The 2008 financial crisis also affected women’s sports in general. Women’s professional golf lost four major sponsors due to this crisis. Grate Britain also have a 79 million Pound budget deficit, that is causing problems for the 2012 London Olympics. Experets are foreseeing that the new season of women’s soccer league in the US will be also affected by this crisis.