For the first time in the history, Egyptian women competed in beach volleyball at the Olympics wearing the burka.
Many people on social media are talking about a women’s beach volleyball match at the Rio Olympics between Egypt and Germany. The Egyptian pairs were wearing long-sleeved shirts, leggings, and hijab, while the German twins were wearing bikinis, the usual uniform for beach volleyball.
The following picture of 19-year-old Egyptian athlete Doaa Elghobashy going up against Germany’s Kira Walkenhorst has been shared many time on social media.
Big uproar over beach volleyball @Olympic team’s outfit. What you wear (or not) should not matter #Olympics pic.twitter.com/CbkSeGyk6E
— Muna AbuSulayman (@MunaAbuSulayman) August 8, 2016
British newspaper Daily Mail thinks that the match between Germany and Egypt has highlighted highlight the massive cultural divide between Western and Islamic women’s teams. It has tweeted the following pictures:
#EGY and #GER beach volleyball match highlights the massive cultural divide at #Rio2016 https://t.co/iHfgoRRbBX pic.twitter.com/1Tlk43WrkW
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) August 8, 2016
It’s the first time in history that Egypt sent a women’s beach volleyball team to the international games. A relaxed uniform regulation allowed them to take part in beach volleyball with their bodies fully covered. Egyptian sports reporter Reem Abulleil mentioned that fact in her tweet:
Nada Meawad and Doaa Elghobashy making history for Egypt as the first women’s Olympic beach volleyball pair pic.twitter.com/nisxdBTTZN
— Reem Abulleil (@ReemAbulleil) August 7, 2016
However, not everyone was impressed by the uniform Germans were wearing in the match. Malaysian Parliamentarian Malek Hussain tweeted a modified picture where the German player was pixilated. He claimed that an Iranian TV broadcasted the image as it can’t afford to show bikini on screen.
Rio 2016: Perlawanan volleyball pantai wanita Mesir-Jerman.
Visual sebenar (kiri); rakaman di TV Iran (kanan). pic.twitter.com/FeHrdCjb5g— Malek Hussin (@AbdMalekHussin) August 9, 2016
The Egyptian pair lost the match 2 sets to 0 against Germans, but they will go on to play Italy next Tuesday, and Canada on Thursday.
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