Article content continued

As much as the competitive 18-year-old senior wanted to continue playing, she agreed to sit out the rest of the game. The team needed the extra points and it would be unfair to stop the game when some of her teammates hadn’t taken to the field.

“I said to my coach, ‘I’d rather see everybody play. I don’t want to ruin this for the rest of the team. Me and the other girl will sit out.’ ”

Continue reading…

[/np_storybar]

Sometimes, though, religious accommodation is not complicated. Sometimes you don’t even need those two words. Sometimes it’s just a soccer team refusing to play another soccer team. That’s what CityNews reports occurred this week on a Brampton, Ont., pitch: a team from ISNA Private Islamic High School objected to their opponents, Robert F. Hall Catholic School, fielding two girls. Losing 3-1 at halftime, the INSA team declined to finish the match unless the ladies left the pitch.

And you’ll never believe what happened next: “The girls on [the Catholic] team told CityNews they insisted on sitting out for the second half to allow the game to continue.”

Now, I choose to believe they did that so the thumping they were delivering could continue, perhaps redoubled in response to the No Gurlz complaint: Robert F. Hall added three more goals in the second half to win 6-1.

But they shouldn’t have been allowed to sit out. Period. Not by their coaches, and not by the referee. There is no need to parse the INSA coach’s attempts to foster what CityNews describes as an “an open dialogue.” There is no need to put ourselves in the INSA players’ shoes and walk a mile. “We want them to understand this balance between religion and having to sacrifice the sport you love is a difficult situation,” says the coach. “We want inclusion for all.”