2012 Olympics: FIFA Banned Iranian Women Football Team

Photo Source for 2012 Olympics Logo: Wikipedia.org

To participate in the Games of the XXX Olympiad or the 2012 Summer Olympics, which will be held in London, United Kingdom on July 27 to Aug 12, 2012 is one of the dreams that most serious athletes aspire right now.  However, for an athlete to qualify in one of the world’s biggest sports event that happens only once every 4 years is not as easy as most people think since there are a number of things to consider. So lucky are those who have been qualified to join in the said  upcoming sports competition.

To date, the board members of the International Olympic Committee have already released a list of NOCs who have at least one qualified athlete. There are 101 nations, as of June 7, 2011, with at least one athlete who is eligible and already sure to compete in the Games of the XXX Olympiad.

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Ali Jarekji

But if there are athletes who qualify, there are also some who fail to meet the standards for the 2012 Summer Olympics. One of them is the Iranian’s women football team. And what is the primary reason for their disqualification? It is none other but the specially-designed head and neck covering scarves, which is part of the team’s logo apparel sports uniform.

Based in Iran’s interpretation of Shiite Islamic doctrine, all female individuals are required to conceal their hair, neck, arms, and legs. Women athletes who compete internationally should obey the country’s dress code when making their uniforms. But sad to say, the International Federation of Football Association has also set its regulation for 2012 Summer Olympics and one of them is with regard to wearing of uniforms. In the guidelines, it states that “Players and officials shall not display political, religious, commercial, or personal messages or slogans in any language or form on their playing or team kits.” And the inclusion of headscarves on Iranian women football team is one form of violating the guidelines set by FIFA. According to the news of Time.com, an unidentified official also told the press that wearing neck scarves during the game is also prohibited as it could be a cause of choking.

Share Your Opinion:

Is disqualifying Iran’s national women football team from the 2012 Olympics lawful or it is just a form of discrimination?

Digitizing: The Ideal Embroidery Technique for Logo Apparel

Creating the most pristine embroidery design has been a very noble art in the past. Why is it called a noble art? Probably because the embroiderer needs to be patient enough since finishing a single and simple embroidery design before is a very time consuming. Aside from that, it is also painstaking. That’s why embroiderers before are very meticulous in stitching out the designs because a single mistake can ruin their entire work and left them to no choice but to start all over.

For hundreds of years, people especially the women have been engaged into this kind of hobby or activity. They do it with their bare hands using needle and thread. The crafts they produced just often serve for decorative purposes. Until trading of goods become popular and people learned to barter their embroidered items to other people in exchange of other things that are essential in their everyday life. Since embroidered products are now used for trading, people used to discover equipments that will help speed up the creation process of embroidery designs.  Fortunately, embroidery machines were discovered in 19^th century and this simplifies the task of embroiderers. With the help of the said machine, the embroiderers are able to produce more design as than the previous technique. However, during this period, most of the embroidery designs found in business shirts or jackets, gifts, team apparel, and even on household linens, draperies, and decorator fabrics come in simple logos and monograms.

 Embroidery of intricate logo designs in variety of colors and stitch types become only possible when computers were invented. When computers are already part of the everyday tools of mankind, wise men are able to discover software programs that will facilitate embroiderers to stitch out designs that the machine embroidery itself is hard to perform. Contemporary embroidery makes use of digitized patterns that will guide the computerized embroidery machine in sewing the design.

It is said that the availability of computerized embroidery machine brings lots of benefits not just to the embroiderers of logo apparel but also to those who want to personalize their shirts. First and foremost, it is now much easier and faster for the embroiderer to set up exactly the same logo apparel design as what the customers used to request. While on the part of customers, they don’t need wait for long before they can get their custom embroidered shirts. Moreover, the labor cost of personalized logo apparel that undergone computerized embroidery digitizing is much cheaper than conventional machine embroidery.