This month the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations commenced with great expectation from viewers across the country as the ‘Shepolopolo’ had earned a substantial local following due to heroic performances in the 2020 Olympics. However, a swirl of rumours confirmed by snippets in sparse articles ultimately confirmed what we feared the most; our captain, team star Barbara Banda, had been excluded from the squad. The public was outraged and questions were met with a hushed tone. In the days since, it has become clear that the system itself, developed under the guise of gender rules and regulation, is in fact a law created to disproportionately oppress the most talented female athletes. In this article I will break down the motivations of Gender Verification Laws or Differences of Sex Development (DSD) (as they are known in athletics), how they are applied in different markets and why in its current state, the law is at its core discriminatory specifically towards female athletes.
What are the FIFA Gender Verification Rules and Why were they put in place?
According to the official statement from the first ever statement on this matter from FIFA dated the 8th June 2011:
“FIFA competitions are defined for specific groups determined by age and sex in order to ensure a level playing field for all players. Androgenic hormones have performance-enhancing effects, particularly on strength, power and speed, which may provide an advantage in football and could influence the outcome of the game. With respect to the integrity of football, it must be guaranteed that players fulfil the respective criteria for participation. It is a major responsibility of member associations and team physicians to ensure the correct gender of their players.”
As stated, it is in the interest of FIFA to clarify the sex / gender of athletes to ensure fair competition. The initial establishment of the gender verification rules was based around a response to the question of transsexuals’ participation, specifically ‘intersex’ persons such as Iyabo Abade of Nigeria (now James Johnson). It is important to distinguish that a transgender and transsexual person are two different entities entirely but often confused as one. Transsexual can be Intersex people, meaning individuals born with both female and male reproductive parts. While extremely rare this condition can in some cases cause significantly higher testosterone levels in an individual, referred to as ‘female hyperandrogenism’ (please note, this is not exclusive to intersex people as 5% (1 in 20) of all women are estimated to be affected and is likely the cause of this case). Fifa argues that based on the evidence presented in scientific studies, competitors are being unfairly disadvantaged and therefore has limited the levels of ‘natural testosterone’ an individual can have using the Disciplinary Committee. The testosterone tests are administered to females exclusively despite men also being susceptible to ‘hyperandrogenism’, but female athletes found in breach are often suspended and forced to submit medical records to ‘prove’ they qualify as women. This regulation at its very core is discriminatory as there is no comparative tests for men despite the condition affecting both sexes and essentially classes all females falling under that 5% effectively as intersex.
Is Testosterone Testing the Answer?
The basis of the regulation lies in the idea women’s sport must be ‘protected’ as men intrinsically are faster, stronger and bigger than most women due to our natural biology. These superior genetics ideally make competition between a female and a male unfair. Under the same condition, international bodies of sport have reached a point of general agreement that this rule must include women with qualities which provide a significant advantage over the average. A popular example is the provision of the varying cases of Caster Semenya and Dute Chand (India). Following the first introduction of Gender Verification laws by the International Olympic Commission (IOC), Chand who at the time was reigning 100 m sprint champion, took the IOC to court based on the unlawfulness of their rules. She challenged the IOC claiming that there was no basis for testosterone providing significant advantages and was victorious in court.
In 2018 a study by the British Journal of Sports Medicine and Swedish researchers (commissioned by the IOC), found that women with higher testosterone could run longer and had more lean muscle mass. The IOC used this as their justification as legal grounds to extend the provision of gender testing laws and to ban Caster Semenya (South Africa) and other athletes from competing in distances 400 metres and above. This was despite the validity of the research being publicly significantly questioned by academia, to the point the researchers now no longer even claim the results of the original test as true. Despite this fact the IOC is still using these same rules to ban athletes like Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi, who before the ban from the Olympics were on course to break records in the 400m event.
Conclusion : CAF and Barbara Banda – ‘A Fragrant Abuse of Human Rights’
On Saturday 2nd of July 2022, CAF online published a story stating the Zambia Womens team Captain Barbara Banda had been excluded from the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations Team. What followed was an outpour of shock and horror from the general population as Ms Banda had established herself as the golden star of the new and promising Shepolopolo roster. She became famous globally following heroic antics through her participation in the 2020 Olympic Games, becoming the first female player to score consecutive hat tricks in an international competition. In 2020 she was also named the top scorer in the competitive Chinese Women’s Super League, scoring 18 goals in 13 matches for her team. She has emerged as the hero of a nation starved of sporting success since the 2011 Africa Cup of Nations.
Human Rights Watch recently referred to the case of Barbara Banda as a ‘flagrant Abuse of Human Rights’ and the United Nations advised member states to ‘prohibit the enforcement of regulations that pressure athletes to undergo unnecessary medical interventions as a precondition for participation in sport’. In imposing this unclear and trochaic law on female athletes, FIFA and bodies like the IOC are leaving female athletes vulnerable to the impact of corruption and in some cases abuse. There is no justification for testosterone testing in its current form and this law unproportionally impacted athletes from around the developing world. Discredited studies based on undiverse testing groups have allowed well funded international sporting bodies to bully female athletes into an embarrassing testing regime. Following FINA’s landmark ruling (transgender swimmers), both FIFA and the IOC have pledged a review of their gender laws. While CAF claims to have ‘stricter laws’, FIFA expressly has banned significant deviations from the unified rules, showing a disparity in the enforcement of the rules.
It is more important now than ever to express displeasure at the impact this law is having on our most promising female athletes. For all the joy and hope Barbara Banda has brought to our nation’s supporters we can only return that in voicing our support against this cause. Despite the effects, our women’s team is still thriving at the event and we wish them the best of luck!