Hijab "empowers" Olympic athletes. (Not really)

Veiled athletes challenge stereotypes in Beijing.

Egyptian fencer Shaimaa El Gammal, a third-timer at the Olympics, will don Islamic headgear in Beijing for the first time. She says it is a sign she is come of age and she feels more empowered than ever.
She now feels empowered? For the first time? She needs her head examined. The hijab is a political symbol of Islam just as much as the Klansmen's hoods were and should be banned.

This year's Games will see a sizable sprinkling of veiled athletes who are determined to avoid offending devout Muslims back home while showing skimpily dressed rivals there is nothing constricting about wearing "hijab".
Except for the mental constriction of the Muslimas thought processes... to say nothing of the thought of running around wearing a sleeping bag. Not constricting at all, nope.

"People see us wearing the scarf and think we ride camels. But Muslim women can do anything they want," said El Gammal, a bubbly 28-year-old whose sister will compete in the same event, also wearing Islamic headgear.
Right. They can do anything except drive. Or get an education. Or even attend a mosque while you are at the Olympics! Now that's what I call liberty, all right.

Beijing's athletes' village has laid on halal food for the hundreds of Muslims staying there, but it only has a mosque for men, despite scores of Muslim women, mostly bare-headed, from countries such as Tunisia, Iran and Pakistan.

Too bad that El Gammal's Muslim sisters from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain can't even play organized sports, much less COMPETE.