Sport is famously considered non-political, a place where people can gather from around the world, put aside differences and compete for glory, pushing themselves – as the Olympics motto says – faster, higher, stronger. But international sport is a platform where some of our knottiest political and cultural issues play out.
Apartheid-era South Africa faced a barrage of sporting boycotts. In 1968 at the Olympics the gold and bronze medal winners of the 200 metres, John Carlos and Tommie Smith raised their fists to protest the Vietnam War and race relations in America. Next to them stood the white silver medal winner Australian Peter Norman.
This time, at the Tokyo Olympics, it is women, their bodies and their choices that have taken centre stage. The German female gymnastics team decided to take part wearing full body unitards, rather than the more common bikini-cut leotard, in a stand against "sexualisation".
This is to the backdrop of a sport rocked in recent years by the revelation of widespread sexual abuse of female athletes. German team member Sarah Voss said: “We want to make sure everyone feels comfortable and we show everyone that they can wear whatever they want and look amazing, feel amazing, whether it is in a long leotard or a short one." It’s about a platform for change. She went on to say: “We want to be a role model in any case, to make everybody have the courage to follow us."
This follows on the back of the Norwegian female beach handball team that refused to wear the regulation bikini bottoms, which according to the International Handball Federation regulations, should be "a close fit and cut on an upward angle towards the top of the leg and a maximum side width of four inches”. Instead, the team opted for shorts similar to those worn by their male counterparts – and promptly fined for doing so.
"It's completely ridiculous," tweeted Norway's Minister for Culture and Sports, Abid Raja: "What a change of attitude is needed in the macho and conservative international world of sport." And there it is, the heart of the matter, the belief which some people still hold, that female athletes take part in sport for the male gaze.
Some would argue that historically, women in sport have been of little interest to men and while things are slowly changing, female athletes were paid less, viewed less, respected and celebrated less. The disparity in women’s remuneration in sports is widely known, the attempt at justification being the fact that apparently women’s sport is not as good and not watched as much. But these are perpetuated by societal ideas that women aren’t as good at performance sport as men.
A Cambridge University Press study in 2016 looked at the differences in how we talk about men and women in sport, analysing over 160 million words used within the domain of sport. Female athletes suffer a focus on aesthetics over athletics and are connected with words such as: aged, older, pregnant, and married or unmarried. Men, on the other hand, are associated with adjectives such as: fastest, strong and great. Men are also connected with verbs such as win, beat, dominate and battle, whereas women have their performance dialled down to the words: compete, participate and strive.
When England’s male football team recently made it to the UEFA cup final it was said to be the first time that "we" made it to a major tournament final since 1966. Except for the fact that the women’s team made it to the Euros final in 2009. Nowhere has women’s participation in sport for aesthetic reasons been clearer than in the case of Formula 1 and the "grid girls" present to add "glamour" to the sport, while the drivers were men. Time was called on this outdated sexism in 2018.
We talk about clothing as though it is trivial or superficial. But like in all walks of life, clothing becomes symbolic of wider social issues. The German and Norwegian female athletes have had to spell out the societal problems: sexualisation and double standards. A uniform is a visible articulation of values. And the sport outfits demonstrate this clearly.
It is interesting that often when Muslim women raise the idea of more body coverage they can be dismissed as oppressed and backwards, whereas when the Germans and Norwegians have done so they are celebrated and cheered. This itself is another important point of social commentary – about which women’s voices are heard and who has the right to self-determination. Nonetheless, the German and Norwegian women are being cheered on and rightly so.
The platform of sport demonstrates clearly how we minimise and sexualise women. Sport makes us confront the values and constraints we place on women in public spaces. It's a good thing that at least in the field of sport we are at last seeing a change in the ideas and attitudes towards women.
Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
Available: Now
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors
Power: Combined output 920hp
Torque: 730Nm at 4,000-7,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel consumption: 11.2L/100km
On sale: Now, deliveries expected later in 2025
Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Six large-scale objects on show
- Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
- The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
- A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
- A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
- Torrijos Palace dome
The specs
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Why are asylum seekers being housed in hotels?
The number of asylum applications in the UK has reached a new record high, driven by those illegally entering the country in small boats crossing the English Channel.
A total of 111,084 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.
Asylum seekers and their families can be housed in temporary accommodation while their claim is assessed.
The Home Office provides the accommodation, meaning asylum seekers cannot choose where they live.
When there is not enough housing, the Home Office can move people to hotels or large sites like former military bases.
More coverage from the Future Forum
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Read more about the coronavirus
Temple numbers
Expected completion: 2022
Height: 24 meters
Ground floor banquet hall: 370 square metres to accommodate about 750 people
Ground floor multipurpose hall: 92 square metres for up to 200 people
First floor main Prayer Hall: 465 square metres to hold 1,500 people at a time
First floor terrace areas: 2,30 square metres
Temple will be spread over 6,900 square metres
Structure includes two basements, ground and first floor
if you go
The flights
Emirates fly direct from Dubai to Houston, Texas, where United have direct flights to Managua. Alternatively, from October, Iberia will offer connections from Madrid, which can be reached by both Etihad from Abu Dhabi and Emirates from Dubai.
The trip
Geodyssey’s (Geodyssey.co.uk) 15-night Nicaragua Odyssey visits the colonial cities of Leon and Granada, lively country villages, the lake island of Ometepe and a stunning array of landscapes, with wildlife, history, creative crafts and more. From Dh18,500 per person, based on two sharing, including transfers and tours but excluding international flights. For more information, visit visitnicaragua.us.
Ferrari
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Three ways to limit your social media use
Clinical psychologist, Dr Saliha Afridi at The Lighthouse Arabia suggests three easy things you can do every day to cut back on the time you spend online.
1. Put the social media app in a folder on the second or third screen of your phone so it has to remain a conscious decision to open, rather than something your fingers gravitate towards without consideration.
2. Schedule a time to use social media instead of consistently throughout the day. I recommend setting aside certain times of the day or week when you upload pictures or share information.
3. Take a mental snapshot rather than a photo on your phone. Instead of sharing it with your social world, try to absorb the moment, connect with your feeling, experience the moment with all five of your senses. You will have a memory of that moment more vividly and for far longer than if you take a picture of it.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
