According to an article published in the Russian media titled “Visa with a trick,” this year, the International Olympic Committee is banning Russians from partaking in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris unless they are ideologically opposed to the war in the Ukraine, act under a neutral flag, and have nothing to do with the Russian security agencies. This comes after countries like the Czech Republic banned Russian athletes from partaking in sporting events in their borders and Russian tennis player Vera Zvonareva was barred recently from Poland.
By taking such a strong stance against Russian athletes, the international community has demonstrated that they care to punish Russia for the crimes against humanity that they have committed in the Ukraine. These crimes include rape and other forms of violence against women. Ukraine’s ombudswoman for human rights, Lyudmyla Denisova, told the BBC that in one case, “about 25 girls and women aged 14 to 24 were systematically raped during the occupation in the basement of one house in Bucha. Nine of them are pregnant.” However, one must ponder, why should the International Olympic Committee only take punitive measures against Russian athletes, when there are so many other countries out there who have committed crimes just as grave against women?
In recent days, it was reported that Iran has decided to force women who refuse to don a veil into psychiatric treatment and to bar them other kinds of medical treatment. This comes after Amnesty International reported, “Official announcements reveal that since 15 April 2023, more than a million women have received text messages warning that their vehicles could be confiscated after they were captured on camera without their headscarves. Additionally, countless women have been suspended or expelled from universities, barred from sitting final exams, and denied access to banking services and public transport. Hundreds of businesses have been forcibly closed for not enforcing compulsory veiling.”
What has been ongoing in recent days is just the tip of the iceberg. Iran is a country that systematically oppresses women. Countless women in Iran have been raped before they were executed due to the Iranian regime’s perverted belief that by robbing women of their virginity, they will be barred access to paradise. Many other Iranian women have been stoned to death for the crime of committing adultery. Yet, Iran is participating in the Olympic Games, as if none of this was ongoing.
Another major women’s rights abuser who is participating in the Olympics is Yemen, where the Houthis who control much of the country systematically repress women’s rights. According to Human Rights Watch, the Houthis since they have largely taken over have “engaged in systematic violation of women’s and girls rights including their rights to freedom of movement, freedom of expression, health, and work.” According to UNDP, “Currently in Yemen, women and girls’ access to education hovers at 35 per cent and only around 6 per cent have access to paid employment opportunities. Women also often have a limited voice and no presence at the proverbial decision-making table, making up only 4.1 per cent of managerial and decision-making positions in Yemen.”
But as if that were not bad enough, the Houthis are also guilty of committing war crimes against women inside of Houthi prisons during the Yemenite Civil War. As Nasma Muhammed, a Yemenite female prisoner inside of a Houthi prison, told human rights groups after she was released, “During interrogations, I was accused of providing coordinates to the Arab coalition and being an agent of America and Israel and working in a prostitution network. They tortured, beat, electrocuted, and sexually harassed and raped me.” Her parents were forced to pay a $6,000 ransom for her freedom. And her case is not an isolated case, as countless Yemenite women experienced similar treatment under Houthi rule. And yet, despite this bloody history, Yemen is participating in the Olympic Games, as if none of this happened.
Another grave women’s rights abusing country permitted to partake in the Olympic Games is Syria, run by the butcher Bashar Al Assad, who is guilty of committing one of the largest democides against his own people of our times, literally carpet-bombing entire cities, villages and towns, raping and torturing women and girls en masse, slaughtering and displacing most of his people, just in order to stay in power. Assad is so cruel that he has demonstrated that he would rather rule dust and rubble rather than cede power.
And the plight of the Syrian people shows no sign of getting better. As the United Nations noted, “Now entering its thirteenth year, 2023 is proving to be one of the most challenging years of the Syria crisis, with a record 15.3 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. Around half are women and girls, including 4.2 million women of reproductive age. The country also has the largest number of internally displaced people in the world at 6.8 million. The same number have fled across borders seeking refuge in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt.” And yet, Assad the butcher can partake in the Olympic Games, as if the Syrian democide never happened.
While it is noble that the International Olympic Committee did take a stance against Afghanistan’s participation in the Olympics due to their desire to bar women and girls the right to partake in the Olympic Games, much more must be done in order to ensure that violators of women’s rights be barred access to the Olympic Games. After all, women’s rights are human rights and the punitive measures against Putin’s Russia and the Taliban should only be part of a larger struggle to ensure that the Olympic Games will only be for countries that are not guilty of waging crimes against humanity against women. Otherwise, such horrific regimes can use the Olympics to promote their dictatorial regimes and thus whitewash the crimes that they have committed.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/should-countries-that-repress-women-be-barred-from-the-paris-olympics/