Sania Mirza is in trouble again. Why does this keep happening to her?<\/b><\/p>\n
The Bangalore Open will start on March 3 but Sania Mirza<\/b> won\u2019t be there and that\u2019s a big deal because Sania is a huge star in India. Why isn\u2019t she going? As she puts it:<\/p>\n
Every time I play in India there is a problem. Considering all that, I thought it would be better not to play in Bangalore. In fact, I feel it would be better if I didn\u2019t play in the country for some time.<\/i><\/p>\n
What problems? Well, first there was tennis wear. Muslims complained about her indecent short skirts and sleeveless tops and called them \u201cun-Islamic.\u201d Sania is Muslim by the way.<\/p>\n
Then there was safe sex. In 2005 she made comments at a leadership summit in Delhi about safe sex that were interpreted as endorsing pre-marital sex.<\/p>\n
Next, trespassing. Late last year she shot a commercial on the premises of a 17th century mosque in her home town of Hyderabad. She faced charges of trespassing and had to apologize for the incident.<\/p>\n
And now, flag desecration. While Sania was playing Hopman Cup in January, she rested her bare feet on a table that was several feet from an Indian flag. A private citizen filed a case against her under the Prevention of Insult to the National Honor Act. She had to appear in a Bhopal court to answer to the charges.<\/p>\n
When I read about these troubles, first I shook my head and muttered something about religious intolerance. Next, I wondered if the male tennis players in India get as much grief as Sania does. Do they get taken to court all the time? Then I thought, it\u2019s not so simple, the male players probably aren\u2019t Muslim.<\/p>\n
Luckily, our reader Sakhi came to my rescue. I mentioned I was going to write about Sania and she pointed me to an article in the Hindustan Times titled Disadvantage Sania<\/a>. Sakhi is, I believe, a professor of Women\u2019s Studies and of Indian heritage so she knows what she\u2019s talking about.<\/p>\n I, on the other hand, took one class in social theory at The New School and spent a total of three weeks in India so I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m talking about. I\u2019m very happy for any help I can get.<\/p>\n Interestingly, the author of the article, Barkha Dutt<\/b>, doesn\u2019t mention the word Muslim. She does refer to \u201cfundamentalist fatwas\u201d but she thinks that India has a love-hate relationship with Sania because she’s \u201cthe only female sports icon India has ever known.\u201d<\/p>\n