~ ARAB HEROINE HOLDS KEY FOR LONDON ~

[HOUDA-K]

Duncan Mackay
Monday February 14, 2005
The Guardian

Those who meet Nawal El Moutawakel regularly remark how charming, approachable and articulate she is. But officials involved with London's bid to host the 2012 Olympics would be advised not to underestimate the Moroccan, who this week will head the team of Olympic inspectors visiting the capital.

El Moutawakel could not have achieved what she has in her remarkable life if she did not have a core of steel running through her. A woman who broke down barriers during her running career, she is now fulfilling a new vocation as the highest-ranking woman in the traditionally male-dominated world of sports administration.

The appointment of an Arab Muslim woman to be head of the International Olympic Committee evaluation commission is another significant landmark, one to set alongside the moment in 1984 when she became the first woman from an Arab or Muslim country to win an Olympic gold medal.

It was in Los Angeles in 1984 where, as a 22-year-old, she took the 400 metres hurdles to become the first Moroccan athlete of either sex to win a gold medal, beating Said Aouita to the distinction by a few days.
Back in her hometown of Casablanca, her final was televised live at 2am. When she crossed the finish line in first place and took her victory lap carrying a Moroccan flag, people across Morocco poured into the streets to celebrate.

Unlike her sisters in other Muslim countries, most notably Algeria, El Moutawakel never suffered hostility from male-dominated religious factions. But her win empowered a new generation of Moroccan sportswomen.

"In Morocco women have been participating since the early Sixties," she said. "My mother herself competed in volleyball. But it has been one step at a time. In 1984 I was the only woman in a Moroccan team of 100 but as a hurdler I am used to jumping barriers. Now those barriers are coming down in other Islamic countries because I believe I showed Muslim women a wider horizon."

Now 42, El Moutawakel is the only Muslim woman on both the IOC and the International Association of Athletics Federations, where she is a member of the ruling council with the London bid leader Sebastian Coe. Some have tipped her as a future president.

She slips seamlessly between the role of a wife and mother - she has two teenage children - and that of a high-powered businesswoman in her position as chief executive of a banking foundation.

But it is sport and how it can help empower Moroccan women that remain El Moutawakel's biggest crusade. She has established a project to educate them about health and nutrition through sports such as handball, basketball and volleyball. She funds her scheme by organising an annual 10km women-only race in Casablanca that last year attracted 11,000 entries, including many dressed in ankle-length robes and veils.
The multilingual El Moutawakel - she speaks four languages - is a self-confessed Anglophile. She has already made it clear she will not be influenced by any anti-British rhetoric over this country's involvement in the Iraq war. She will lead a panel of 12 that will visit London and prepare a report to be published a few weeks before the election of the host at a meeting of the IOC in Singapore on July 6.

There are plenty on the commission who share El Moutawakel's admiration for Britain. The Namibian athlete Frankie Fredericks is a good friend of both Coe and the vice-chairman, Alan Pascoe, and South Africa's Sam Ramsamy was exiled in London while he fought apartheid and ran the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee.

The visit will be London's only opportunity to provide a first-hand presentation of the city's Olympic plans. To prepare for the tour Coe and his colleagues took part in role-playing exercises in an attempt to replicate the tough questioning they will face.

El Moutawakel is proof of how good preparation for the Olympics can change one's life.

[TonyStarks]

Good article, but i had to point something out:

"Unlike her sisters in other Muslim countries, most notably Algeria, El Moutawakel never suffered hostility from male-dominated religious factions. But her win empowered a new generation of Moroccan sportswomen."

They forgot about Hassiba Boulmerka ? She won a gold medal and had no problem (if im not mistaken anyway).

[HOUDA-K]

Salam khoya,

3 words : "vingt ans barakat"

This is another thread in itself.