Proving a point on ice

Spotlight : United Arab Emirates' figure skater Zahra Lari is breaking cultural barriers on the global stage

Zahra Lari of the United Arab Emirates did not qualify for the 2018 Winter Olympics in figure skating in her final opportunity recently. In fact, she finished last among 33 skaters at the Nebelhorn Trophy competition in Oberstdorf, Germany. But, for Muslim women, Lari considered this a step forward, not backward.

She is a woman from a desert nation in the Middle East helping to break ground — and cultural barriers — in a winter sport. And she was judged by the way she skated, not the way she dressed.

Lari, 22, is the only athlete who wears a hijab on the international skating circuit. Five years ago, at her first major competition, in Italy, points were deducted from her score because some judges considered her head covering a costume prop.

She later met with officials of the International Skating Union. Such deductions are no longer being made, she said. The ISU rules say only that clothing must be “modest, dignified and appropriate for athletic competition — not garish or theatrical in design.”

While there is no explicit prohibition against hijabs, Lari would like the skating union’s rulebook to clarify that they are specifically allowed, a matter the ISU has discussed but so far not taken a position on.

“I’m not sure we should exaggerate this and create more problems for ourselves,” said Alexander Lakernik, a vice president of the skating union, who suggested that judges now already look past the hijab.

Perhaps the skating federation has learned a lesson from FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, which had banned head coverings until 2014 because they supposedly made players susceptible to injury. FIFA began to reconsider when Iran’s women’s team withdrew from a match during the 2012 Olympic qualifying tournament, protesting the restriction.

Basketball’s international federation lifted its ban on headscarves in May.

Even though many women live with restrictions not placed on men in the Middle East — only recently did women gain permission to drive cars in Saudi Arabia — Muslim athletes continue to make high-profile advances.

At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, Tugba Karademir of Turkey became the first Muslim woman to compete in figure skating at the games.

At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, the sprinter Ruqaya al Ghasara of Bahrain was said to have become the first woman to wear a hijab in the games. At the 2012 London Olympics, Saudi Arabia sent women to the Olympics for the first time. One of its athletes, Sarah Attar, a US-born half miler competing in a hijab, received a standing ovation for her persistence after finishing far behind her competitors in a heat of the 800 meters.

At the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad of New York became the first Olympian from the United States to compete while wearing a hijab. She won a bronze medal in the team sabre competition.

Roquiya Cochran, Lari’s mother and manager and a native of North Carolina, said, “Everyone has a place in the world, and they should have the ability and right to find their place.”

Despite its elitist reputation, figure skating has grown increasingly inclusive. Kuwait and Qatar have inquired with the UAE about potential entry into the International Skating Union. So has Lebanon, which already fields Winter Olympic teams in Alpine skiing. At the Nebelhorn competition, Julian Zhi Jie Yee became the first skater from Malaysia to qualify for the Olympics.

Lari said she still hears criticism via social media, always anonymously: “This is against your culture. It’s not part of your religion.” No stranger has complained to her face.

“It’s just close-minded people who don’t understand the sport or that there’s nothing wrong with it,” Lari said.

There has been another, more amusing reaction — marriage proposals on her Facebook fan page.

At one time, Lari has said in interviews, her father, Fadhel, a telecommunications executive, had reservations about her skating. But he is now supportive, and the sport is a family affair. Lari’s parents started the first official skating club in the UAE, and her mother is the country’s sports manager for figure skating.

“The value of what Zhara is doing is huge, not just in the country, but I think for all young Muslim girls to have confidence in themselves and to know that if there something they want to do in their lives, they should live their dreams and go for it,” Cochran said.

In March, Nike announced that it would follow other companies and introduce a lightweight hijab for athletic competition, beginning next spring. Lari is among the athletes featured in its campaign, to which reaction has been mixed. Some on social media have accused Nike of financial opportunism and validating the oppression of women.

Lari, who has a sponsorship deal with Nike, said, “I think they’re really fighting for girls in the Arab region. It’s great having a big sports brand doing that.”

Lari began skating at 12 after watching the Disney movie “Ice Princess.” A full-time student at Abu Dhabi University, she sandwiches her training between her studies of environmental health and safety and the availability of ice time in a country with a growing interest in hockey and only three Olympic-size rinks.

Lari feels self-imposed pressure to represent the new aspirations of an entire country. But she is young and there is time to improve before trying to qualify for the 2022 Games in Beijing.

“I feel proud,” Lari said, but when she is on the ice, “it doesn’t cross my mind what a big thing I’m doing. I’m just doing something I love.”