30 October,2016 11:51 AM IST | | IANS
Indian pistol shooter Heena Sidhu pulled out of the Asian Airgun Shooting Championship in Iran due to the compulsory hijab rule for all women athletes
New Delhi: Indian pistol shooter Heena Sidhu pulled out of the Asian Airgun Shooting Championship in Iran due to the compulsory hijab rule for all women athletes. The former World No. 1 thinks that forcing women athletes to wear a hijab is against the spirit of sport.
"Sport is an exhibition of sheer Human Effort Performance. Our ability to dig deep for Strength, Will Power and Determination. This is d reason I compete n I cannot compete for anything lesser than this. But I wud also not have my personal opinion politicised," Sidhu wrote on her Twitter handle.
The Asian Airgun Shooting Championship is scheduled be held in Iran's capital Tehran in December.
She further tweeted: "Im proud 2 b sportsperson coz ppl from diff cultures, backgrounds, sexes, ideologies, religion can cum 2gether n compete without biases. Im not a revolutionary. But I feel dat making it mandatory for even a sportsperson to wear hijab is not in the spirit of a Sport."
