What’s Next with Pakistan’s most popular couple: Shoaib & Sania?

The couple (Sania Mirza & Shoaib Malik), which made news all over the world 2 months earlier with their wedding have eventually made Dubai as their abode. What started off as a rumor among the sports section of each newspaper turned into a wonderful and epic marriage sprinkled with a little mayhem with the legal and social dilemma tossed upon the two players.

Both Sania & Shoaib seemed to have decided before hand that each would play for its respective country no matter what, while still cheering for each other and giving all moral support they could give. Dilawar Abbas, the chief of Pakistan Tennis Federation states, “We welcome her and hope that she would become a Pakistani national and play for us in future. She has a great future ahead and we would be delighted if she plays for Pakistan”. He further added that if required she could also team up for a great mixed doubles partner with Pakistan’s very own Aisam-ul-Haq and bring home lots of cheers together.

For the time, I believe that Mr. Dilawar Abbas should not keep his hopes too high and it would be perfectly fine for anyone to play for his mother country. What we should cherish at the moment is that both these couples who made history hold trust in each other and best of all they both are Muslims.

But being a female Muslim tennis player creates another dilemma in the minds of many Muslims in the subcontinent altogether. Playing tennis or any game for that matter for a woman isn’t and shouldn’t be a problem, however there are certain limitations that one should try and confine to.

To start off, many Muslims would certainly find it a little disrupting to see a Muslim woman to put a show wearing nickers and mini skirts to worldwide broadcasted game. Many broad minded Muslims would not mind such a picture but with the Revisionist and Orthodox Mulsims on the line who try to cling on the Divinely Ordained laws of protection for Women would suggest quite the opposite of how things are running with this couple.

It is believed that if in future Sania gets to pursue her life in her husband’s home country she would have to face a lot of criticism and may be asked to give up her game. Issues like these and that of a marriage between an Indian woman with a Pakistani husband have a possibility to create more problems for both of these world class players.

The author is an associate at IslamTribune.com a US based Online News Magazine, capturing different perspectives of people and their view on News around the world. For more detailed insights on US and the Middle East News visit the website.