Update #2 — Sad News!
Unfortunately, you won’t see Jamilah competing for a spot on the Olympic team. Early this week Jamilah’s legal representation filed an Opportunity to Participate complaint to USA Wrestling. They scheduled an emergency hearing to review the complaint but chose to deny the complaint. Their reasoning - they don’t make the rules - UWW does and UWW won’t accept the Classic Wrestling uniform. When Jamilah asked what USA wrestling tournaments can she compete in the USA Wrestling representatives first tried to tell her that she could compete at Fargo. For those who are unaware - Fargo is a HIGHSCHOOL competition. Jamilah is a 21 year old graduate student. She would be ineligible to compete at that tournament. When she expressed this and pressed USA Wrestling for a viable alternative, they told her there were no competitions sponsored or hosted by USA Wrestling that she would be allowed to compete in.
The reigning 143lb National Champ is not allowed to compete at any of the tournaments or competitions organized by the governing body for wrestling in the United States, and that same governing body is not willing to work with Jamilah in the least!
During the hearing, the USA Wrestling legal representation attempted to use a disingenuous scare tactic against Jamilah, her father, and her lawyer by stating that it was unlikely that they would ever win a case should they choose to take this further. The precedent he chose to cite? A 1981 case of an IL Orthodox Jewish Boys Basketball Team vs the Illinois High School Association. Essentially, the IHSA was prohibiting the boys from wearing their religious head covering as they claimed it was a safety issue. The USA Wrestling lawyer attempted to try to tell Jamilah, her father, and her lawyer that the Jewish school lost the court case and, because of this, they would likely lose too. This lawyer either thought Jamilah, her father, and her lawyer were all stupid or incompetent or truly thought it would be ok to flat-out lie. Anyone who goes and reads the proceedings from the case can tell that, in fact, the Jewish team did win that lawsuit.
To add insult to injury, in the midst of all of this, Jamilah found out that her coach received an email from UWW saying that they “tested” the classic uniform in Turkey and decided they would not allow it (despite it being an approved uniform in their own rule book for classic wrestling which is in essence freestyle wrestling which is what Jamilah does). UWW did not provide any details about the nature of the test, who it was tested with, how it was tested, or even what specifically was tested. Nor does it appear that the 200+ matches that Jamilah and her two sisters have wrestled were ever taken into consideration during their “testing”.
It is truly a shame that the national governing body for the sport of wrestling has chosen an exclusionary, religious discriminatory, bigoted, narrow-minded, anti-islam, and anti-woman approach to this entire situation.
So, what does this mean moving forward? Well, Jamilah and her family are not done. They will not stop fighting, not until they and all female wrestlers who must adhere to their sincerely held religious beliefs have the same opportunities as everyone else. We are asking that you don’t stop supporting Jamilah, her sisters, and all female athletes as they continue to push forward on this issue.
Please continue to spread the word. Share this petition. Share the many interviews, news stories, and articles that will be coming out in the coming weeks (check out this most recent one with Atlanta News First). Tag all the folks you think can amplify this and continue to put pressure on USA Wrestling, IOC, and UWW. Email the wrestling governing bodies’ leadership and express your feelings about their decision to once again deny a young woman her dreams and continue to make the culture and position held by these leading establishments one of exclusion, bigotry and discrimination.