The rules used to control women in athletics are based on stereotypes rather than scientific data. The alert is from Human Rights Watch, which criticizes the new regulations of World Athletics, the body that regulates athletics worldwide.
Last week, transgender athletes were officially barred from women’s track and field events. The non-governmental organization (NGO) Human Rights Watch denounces that, in athletics, women are subject to “arbitrary” and increasingly “restrictive” policies.
The new World Athletics regulations require that women with testosterone levels above the normal range, changes in their sexual characteristics and hormonal sensitivity must undergo medical procedures to reduce testosterone levels and only then can they participate in sporting events.
Human Rights Watch criticizes the move, stating that these standards are not based on scientific studies and do not have an objective basis. The NGO stresses that the new regulations are only intended to “coerce” women into accepting “unnecessary medical interventions” to alter hormone levels, “simply because someone considers that natural testosterone is atypical.”
The director of Human Rights Watch says that these rules are aimed at “surveillance, marginalization and stereotyping”
Human Rights Watch reviewed previous World Athletics policies and found that they had previously encouraged abusive sexual testing, discrimination, surveillance, and coercive medical intervention on athletes, which ended up causing physical and psychological harm and financial hardship for many.
The NGO stresses that there is no scientific consensus that women with naturally higher testosterone values have a performance advantage in all sports and stresses that, although there are different testosterone levels among men, there has never been a similar regulation for male athletes.
Testing can be “invasive” and “discriminatory”
Susana Feitor, a member of the Olympic commission and adviser to the National Sports Council, fears that the new rules will be invasive and even discriminatory, but the issue is very complex: there must be more reflection before moving forward with the changes.
“The problem of the discussion is really complex, because it starts from trans women and also from some women who appear to have some masculinity. This is a bit invasive and seems a bit discriminatory to me. I think they should wait a little longer for “The scientific community could develop a more informed and reasoned opinion. I know that Paris is already tomorrow, but the truth is that we cannot put the cart before the horse. I think we must be more prudent and leave let science come,” he defends. .
Susana Feitor believes that, even for transgender athletes, the tests should only be carried out on those who changed their sex after puberty.
“The peaks of growth are reached until adolescence and it should not be considered that all boys who make their transition to adolescence are prohibited from competing among women. After adolescence, it is something else. In relation to all women, I am somewhat afraid of tests, although they are simple tests. I am afraid that it can be invasive in some cultures, I have doubts, ”she underlines.
The new World Athletics regulations come into force this Friday. Under the new rules, 13 women have already been excluded from the world athletics championships, which will take place in August.
Source: TSF
