NBA

USA Defeats Iran In Basketball, Cheerleaders Cover Up In “Nod To Islam”

by Dan Fogarty | 4:43 pm, September 1st, 2010

USA defeated Iran in basketball today, which comes as a surprise to no one. What may raise a few eyebrows: team dancers were forced to wear long pants in a “nod to Muslim law.”

The Americans were led by two Kevins, Durant and Love, in their 88-51 beat down of the Iranians (oh, if only bubbling political conflict could be resolved on the parquet). In the days leading up to the contest, both teams downplayed the testy relations between their home countries in recent years.

Neither team would feed into the nationalistic fervor that is often such a huge part of international basketball, with the stock excuse for trash-talk being “We’re just here to play basketball.”

One interesting tidbit that arose from the game: the cheerleaders were forced to cover up.

[In} a nod to the Iranian supporters in Istanbul — which included minister of sports Ali Saeedlou earlier in the tournament — dancers were ordered to cover up for their performances during the game. Islam prohibits women from exposing their skin in public, and Iranian officials had turned their backs when the dancers performed in earlier games.

The dancers wore long pants Wednesday.

This isn’t the first time basketball was deprived of gyrating women during timeouts and intermissions at the world championships. In both games played by host country Turkey, dancers were forbidden from even coming out on the court. Oh public outcry over lack of sexy basketball dancers in Muslim countries, where are you?!

Persian

I am an Iranian and it is wrong to say “In a nod to the Iranian supporters in Istanbul” the dancers had to cover up. They did that because of Iranian officials not the Iranian supporters. Us Iranians have no problem with such cloths as we wear them at parties. The problem is with the regime officials who are misrepresenting Iran,
Exposing a lie

Just to expose a lie, despite my despise for the muslim governments. The cheerleaders were asked to cover up by the Turkish government (a secular government), because the Turkish supporters were upset. The Iranian officials also were upset, but didn’t have any say. The Iranian supporters did not complain about the cheerleaders at all.

So why you reported the news this way? Is this proper journalism? Or is this creating an all bad? Are you not ashamed of yourself as a journalist?
Hamid

Anyway, I’m Iranian too and I do agree that most of Iranians have no problem with such cloths. Such happenings are forced by extremist regime of Iran, not Iranian people.
gs

Hey exposing a lie. The government of Turkey is imposing Islamic law in many things so either change your moniker or get your facts straight.
BASavage

When in Rome do as the Romans do, so to speak. However if they host a tournament like this in the west or in the USA then the Muslim extremeists can live by our rules. The West is not intollerent but Islam is.