Written by Rachael Rodgers
As Rory McLeod qualified for the Australian Open, he left fellow players, Referees and supports shocked when he refused to shake the hand of Ivy Zhu, because she is female and it is against his Muslim belief to shake the hand of a woman. He didn't want to disrespect his religion but showed disrespect to his sport.
Many on twitter called for McLeod to be fined for being rude and questioned whether or not if he had ever played a match with Michaela Tabb refereeing it. I have looked but cannot find anything stating she has. Though I understand that religion is a big part of many people's lives but when it means you are disrespectful to the job you do, then there has to be some give and take. More women are going into men's sports and on a personal level it feels almost sexist that he would happy shake the hand of a male ref but not a female.
Ivy is a new ref and she must have felt awful when he refused to shake her hand, it effects more people than Rory and it also doesn't help with his fan base either which suffers for his lengthy and widely quoted boring game play.
Mr Snookerbacker has today throught of a way over the hand shake, and that you could change it for an air kiss instead and if it isn't done correctly you get called a foul. I feel this wouldn't go down so well either but its still a light ending to s serious subject.
5/7/11- proof has been found in video footage that Rory has shaken hands with Michaela Tabb
(Footage from youtube)
Seen here at about 5 mins 20 secs, so the question still remains why did he not shake Ivy's hand?
we as humans,must respect everybody
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