Pistol shooter Heena Sidhu has pulled out of the Asian Air Gun Shooting Championships that is settled to be held in Tehran, Iran. She cited her withdrawal to Iran's strict rule that makes hijab mandatory for every female athlete. Sidhu wrote a letter to the National Rifle Association of India about her decision to withdraw. She has now been replaced with Harveen Srao for the Tehran bound squad.
"Sport is an exhibition of sheer Human Effort Performance. Our ability to dig deep for Strength, Will Power and Determination. This is d reason I compete n I cannot compete for anything lesser than this. But I wud also not have my personal opinion politicised," Sidhu wrote on micro-blogging site Twitter. She posted a series of tweets explaining her point of view. She is the only shooter to have raised an objection to the rule, all other women shooters have agreed to wear hijabs.
"I thank the NRAI for respecting my views n I wud also like 2wish luck 2 r team competing in Iran. Lets concentrate on competition dan hijab." She also tweeted, "Im proud 2 b sportsperson coz ppl from diff cultures, backgrounds, sexes, ideologies, religion can cum 2gether n compete without biases." Another tweet read, "Im not a revolutionary. But I feel dat making it mandatory for even a sportsperson to wear hijab is not in the spirit of a Sport."
Heena came 14th after she was eliminated in the qualification round of 10m women's air pistol in Rio Olympics in August. She had earlier won a gold at the 2013 World Cup as well as the Asia Rio 2016 Olympics qualifiers.
