Sweden Women Players Forced To Show Genitalia At 2011 World Cup

Sweden’s football player Nilla Fischer’s new book, I Didn’t Say Half Of It, has made shocking revelations about the 2011 Women’s World Cup. After over a decade, she disclosed that players of the Sweden women’s football team were asked to "show their genitalia to a doctor" to prove their gender.

Fisher explained that a female physiotherapist, on behalf of a doctor, conducted the process and described the experience as 'humiliating'. She claimed that the doctor directed them not to shave their private parts in the coming days, and they had to show their genitalia to the doctor.

Sweden Women Players Forced To Undress

She said that nobody understood a thing about shaving, but they just did as they were told, thinking, "How did it get to this?" They had thought there had to be other ways to ensure their gender and wondered if they should refuse.

However, it was the World Cup, and no one wanted to jeopardise their opportunity to participate. So they just got it done, no matter how humiliating and sickening it felt.

These gender tests were performed at the 2011 tournament in Germany. In an exclusive interview with Aftonbladet, a Swedish newspaper, Fischer said that the players were asked to quickly pull down the pants and underwear together, and the physio would nod and say "yep" to the doctor. The doctor would be standing with his back to the doorway. He would make a note and move on to the next player.

Fischer added that after checking all the players, i.e., after all the players were forced to expose their vagina, the team doctor would sign that the Swedish women’s national football team consists only of women. Further stated that they had a safe environment in the team, but this particular checking was an extremely strange situation and wasn’t a comfortable way to do it.

This comes amidst the wrestlers' protest in India, where seven female wrestlers are demanding the arrest of WFI chief Brij Bhushan, alleging sexual harassment. On the outside, all we see is how female athletes are breaking stereotypes and establishing their prowess in a 'male-dominated' field such as sports. And yet, on the inside, they are subjected to various forms of harassment that are most often kept in the dark.

It could have been a woman who "checked" them. Now one may question why they had to oblige if they weren’t comfortable. How would a sportsperson who has toiled so hard to reach the World Cup be ready to mess up their opportunity? If they had spoken out at that moment, they might have lost their golden opportunity and jeopardised their careers. However, women cannot be put in such uncomfortable and dehumanising positions just because they are in a position to say no. Imagine how traumatising it would have been to be asked to undress in front of a stranger just before competing in a World Cup event. They would have already been stressed about the game, and this insensitive and inhumane act would have only worsened the situation for them.

It's the system that's at fault for choosing such a third-grade method to determine a player’s gender. Did they necessarily have to force someone to reveal their genitalia? Aren’t there enough scientific tests to check a player’s gender? Why is women’s dignity always perceived to be so cheap that people in a superior position think they are entitled to play with it? Dignity is a fundamental right. Is it too much for women to expect the bare minimum?

Suggested Reading: How Sexual Harassment & Abuse Towards Female Sportsperson Has Long Existed

Image Credits: The Guardian

Views expressed by the author are their own