An AFP article back in 2001 stated that Islamists in Kuwait have urged the government to cancel a football tournament for women, saying the competition would bring “the wrath of God” down on the conservative Muslim society. The tournament, which was scheduled to kick off at Kuwait University the next day, would bring together twelve all-female student teams drawn from the university, institutes, and Arab and foreign schools.
Abdullah al-Mutawa, head of the emirate’s fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood movement, told the Al-Anba daily that the participation of women in such activities was “forbidden and a disobedience to God, and can subject the whole society to the Almighty’s wrath.”
Leading Islamic MP Waleed al-Tabtabai said, “It is not acceptable to hold open tournaments for girls as happens in other countries. This will allow men to watch women’s bodies, clearly forbidden by Islam,” Tabtabai said in a statement. “The people of Kuwait reject the use of sport to abuse the chastity and dignity of women, and to imitate Western society where religion has no place,” he said.
al-Tabtabai had previously called on the state-run television to stop showing women’s beach volleyball, diving, and synchronized swimming from the 2000 Sydney Olympics, branding them “too sexy and indecent.” He had been outspoken in his criticism of all forms of entertainment that involve mixing of the sexes, including “non-traditional and immoral” musical concerts at Kuwait’s annual shopping festival.
When I first ran across this article, I found it utterly fascinating. The Islamists, which every faithful Bible student would not only agree is a false religion, and have treated women in completely demeaning and ungodly ways, can actually see the inherent dangers in immodest dress and mixing men and women together in circumstances that will produce unrighteous thoughts.
However, even “religiously enlightened” Christians in our country won’t recognize the danger and sinfulness of this act. Young boys and girls are allowed to wear indecent clothing and participate in activities like mixed swimming and sports where they become objects of lust for others and are tempted to lust themselves. Paul once said, “I speak this to your shame” (1 Corinthians 15:34). Will you let this be spoken of you? We need to be adorning ourselves in “modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works” (1 Timothy 2:9-10). May God’s wrath not fall on us!
Kyle Campbell