American pop singer Pink offered to pay a fine to the Norwegian women’s beach handball team because they wore shorts instead of bikini bottoms.
On social media on Saturday, Pink stated that she was “very proud” of the team’s protest against the rule that banned them from wearing shorts like their male colleagues.
I am very proud of the Norwegian women’s beach handball team protesting the very sexist rules regarding their “uniforms”. The European Handball Federation should be fined for sex discrimination. Good job, ladies. I am happy to pay the fine for you. keep working hard.
At the European Beach Handball Championship in Bulgaria last week, the Norwegian women’s team was fined 1,500 euros (1,770 US dollars) by the European Federation for improper dressing and “violation of clothing regulations.” The rules stipulate that women must wear bikini bottoms, while men must wear shorts.
The Norwegian Handball Federation did not dispute the decision of the Norwegian team and several other teams that it considered unfair, and announced earlier that it was prepared to pay a fine.
Handball donation fine
The European Handball Federation (EHF) admitted on Monday that the incident caused a commotion in the media and social media.
It stated that it would donate the money paid by the Norwegian team to “a major international sports foundation that supports equality between women and girls in sports.”
“We are very aware of the attention this topic has received in the past few days. Although the change cannot happen overnight, we are fully committed to the current situation that will produce some good results. This is why the EHF donated the fine to the promotion. A good cause for sports equality,” EHF Chairman Michael Widler said in a statement.
He said that handball is already ahead of other sports in some respects, such as the parity of men’s and women’s games. He pointed out that this happened earlier in beach handball than in football.
Norwegian women posted a photo of themselves in shorts on Instagram and told their fans: “Thank you very much for your support. We are very grateful for all the love we received.”
