News from Civsy, based on human monitoring, generative AI tools and retrieval-augumented real time data searchIn December 2025, Karbala’s Directorate of Education, in cooperation with the Ministry of Youth and Sports, organized a girls‑only track and field championship for middle and secondary schools at the Youth Forum stadium, with 150 students from around 40 schools competing under an all‑female refereeing and organizing team. The event, presented by local education officials as a qualitative first for the province, ended with medals and trophies for winning schools and was celebrated in some media as a step toward strengthening girls’ presence in school sports and expanding women’s roles in the sports sector. Images and clips published by Iraqi outlets and shared on social media showed hijab‑wearing students running on the track and posing with their teams, highlighting how ordinary school competition can become politically charged when it unfolds in a city with Karbala’s religious status.
The “Sanctity of Karbala” response
Within days, the coordinating committee of the “Sanctity of Karbala Project,” a non‑official religious‑social initiative, issued a statement condemning what it called a “shameful” or “indecent” event organized by the education directorate, focusing particularly on the publication of girls’ images in sportswear. The committee stressed that it was not opposed to women’s sports in principle, but argued that the way the event was photographed and disseminated violated the city’s religious and social “specificity,” invoking concepts of chastity, modesty and tribal custom and calling on provincial councillors and Karbala MPs to take a clear position. This intervention exemplifies how a self‑described community initiative, without formal legal authority, can nonetheless claim moral guardianship over public space in a city built around Shiite shrines and pilgrimage.
Media debate and social reactions
The controversy quickly moved into Iraqi media and social networks, with Al‑Aalem framing the dispute as part of a wider struggle over “social guardianship,” asking whether such campaigns represent protection of sanctities or an encroachment on constitutional freedoms. Human rights voices interviewed by the outlet underlined that Iraq is formally a civil, not a religious, state and that similar or more far‑reaching women’s sports activities are openly practiced in other Muslim‑majority countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, questioning why Karbala should be subjected to stricter informal controls. At the same time, Instagram posts and comments amplified polarized reactions, from users praising the girls’ courage and the all‑female refereeing experiment to others echoing the language of “offense to sanctity” and urging tighter restrictions on women’s visibility in public events.
Law, rights and local vetoes
Legal experts interviewed by Al‑Aalem stressed that the Iraqi constitution obliges the state to support cultural and sports activities and prohibits restricting rights and freedoms except through clear law, warning that informal campaigns and social intimidation cannot substitute for constitutional standards. They highlighted provisions that commit the state to fostering cultural and sports life without discrimination and bar any restriction that undermines the essence of a right, suggesting that attempts to prevent girls’ participation or publicity outside a legal framework amount to overreach. At the same time, the Karbala case fits a broader Iraqi pattern in which religious and tribal actors, including projects like “Sanctity of Karbala,” function as de facto veto players, narrowing the space for gender‑inclusive educational reforms even when those reforms sit squarely within national law and policy commitments on education, equality and youth development.
