Two Athletes in Opposite Ends of The World Prove Sexism Knows No Land

The last couple of days, two different incidents that happened to different female athletes in two opposite ends of the world proved the same thing; that sexism knows no religion, culture, and no boundaries.

Let us start with what happened here in Egypt:

Last week, Al-Ahly Volleyball player, Mariam Metwaly got a tweet from someone saying that her clothes on the games; her ‘team uniform’ is inappropriate and provocative to the men watching her, sexually.

Captain Mariam graciously replied to the since removed tweet by a quote to the late El-Sheikh El Shaarawy.

Here is Mariam addressing the whole thing in her interview on El-Match TV show:

صدى البلد on Twitter: “لاعبة طائرة الأهلي: اتهموني بأثارة الشهوات.. وكلام الشيخ الشعراوي كان خير رد@MariamMetwally#الماتش #صدى_البلد@HHathout @baladtv pic.twitter.com/ejLLBg4oRM / Twitter”

لاعبة طائرة الأهلي: اتهموني بأثارة الشهوات.. وكلام الشيخ الشعراوي كان خير رد@MariamMetwally#الماتش #صدى_البلد@HHathout @baladtv pic.twitter.com/ejLLBg4oRM

Luckily, after Mariam’s reply, her faithful fans and followers came to her defense supporting her and attacking the guy who wrote the original tweet in the comment section. Which is what probably caused him to delete it.

Unluckily though, not everyone was supportive, and our good ol’ internet trolls used this chance to hop up on this casual sexism wave to attack the athlete and accuse her of being provocative as well.

Captain Mariam Hits Again:

Thankfully, the hate Captian Mariam has been receiving did not affect her inhibition and continued to reply to the haters.

Mariam’s latest reply was as strong as her inhibition. Stating what should be obvious, Mariam Metwally pointed to those accusing her of being provocative that who ever goes to a “volleyball court” should go to watch her perform and play, not watch her body or figure. And if watching a “sport” is sexually provocative to someone, then that someone needs psycho therapy.   

Beautifully put…

The tweet Mariam was responding to though seems to have also been removed. Do I detect a pattern here?

This should have been the end of it, but apparently that was only the begging of something much, much worse…

The Ugliest of the Ugly:

After Mariam’s latest tweet, Al Watan Sports reported the Athlete’s Tweet in a news piece, then posted it on their Facebook page captioned; “Al-Ahly Volleyball player: Look at my performance not my body”.

And thus opened the flood gates of pure sexism…

In the comment section of the Watan Facebook post, people took the originally unacceptable sexism to a whole new level.

Of course, you have your casual sexually assaulting “jokes”…

And your flat-out oral sexual harassment…

And just a disgusting cocktail of sexism mixed with some good ol’ cyber bullying, with a dash of made up facts on top…

P.S. She does NOT wear hot shorts on the court. However, if she does, it still wouldn’t justify being harassed.  

As much as we’d love to believe that this obnoxious level of sexism displayed in that incident is an individual case, and in no way reflect the way most humans (both men and women) perceive women’s value in our society, we can’t.

Because like I mentioned in the beginning of the article, something very similar happened on the other end of the world and revealed pretty much the same ugly result…

Let’s talk about what happened in Australia:

Also during this past week, (AFL) Australian Football League player Tayla Harris was subject to a wave of sexist online trolling for a photo taking of her kicking the ball to score the first goal of that night’s game.

The picture that was shot by an AFL photographer in an AFL match was posted on the AFL Facebook page captioned as “Photo of the Year”.

The perfectly fine, quite athletically impressive shot was since removed from the AFL page after numerous people made sexually inappropriate comments about Tayla, specifically, Tayla’s legs…

Thankfully, the Tayla did not sit back and take it. She stood up to all the trolls who attacked her.

Tayla roars back

Although the AFL apologized for removing the picture and re-posted it, people did not stop from continuing to make inappropriate remarks about the athlete who was -believe it or not- doing her job.

So Tayla, being the strong woman that she is went out of her silence to snap back at all her haters.

Calling them “animals”…

Tayla Harris on Twitter: “Here’s a pic of me at work… think about this before your derogatory comments, animals. pic.twitter.com/68aBVVbTTj / Twitter”

Here’s a pic of me at work… think about this before your derogatory comments, animals. pic.twitter.com/68aBVVbTTj

“Derogatory and sexist comments aren’t okay”

Tayla ⚡️ Harris on Instagram: “My hamstring is ok but derogatory and sexist comments aren’t.”

101K likes, 6,953 comments – tayla_harris on March 19, 2019: “My hamstring is ok but derogatory and sexist comments aren’t.”

Tayla ⚡️ Harris on Instagram: “My hamstring is ok but derogatory and sexist comments aren’t.”

101K likes, 6,953 comments – tayla_harris on March 19, 2019: “My hamstring is ok but derogatory and sexist comments aren’t.”

So apparently, whether it’s a scarf or a pair of shorts, seeing women in general is provocative in some how. Do you think it might be… I don’t know, YOUR Problem?

Just like Mariam, Tayla was stating what should have been already obvious to all.

But apparently, even though, we are in 2019, we still need to explain that if you are ‘sexually provoked’ by an athlete doing her job, then you have a serious problem.

In other words, you are a pervert, seek help…