Please just let Caster BE HERSELF

At age 18 most girls seem to worry more about their body shape, nails, hair and their boyfriends than they would about being a world champion in 800m. Caster Semenya happens to be the opposite of what most girls worry about at the age of 18. However, being a world champion is not the only thing Caster Semenya has had to worry about. Her entire life people have been asking questions about her gender because according to them women need to look a certain way in order to be classified as women. It goes back to the manner in which society has been shaped throughout history and the role that women have had to play. Women have had to fight tooth and nail in many countries in order to be recognized as equals by men.  It is even said by some men that because a women is dressed in a certain way she is inviting herself to either be raped or to have sex with the man. Such tendencies need to change in society because they have the ability to kill the future of a young woman who all she wants to do is run the 800m and be known as a world champion and hopefully one day become an Olympic champion.

If media reports are anything to go by it seems as if Caster Semenya has been questioned her entire life by people within her own community because she preferred to play soccer with the boys instead of playing with other girls who preferred dolls and dressing up. Caster though mentions that just because she played soccer with the boys, it does not mean that she did not do house chores such as cooking and cleaning the house. The dominant stereotype about a woman is that she must be able to cook and clean and Caster talks about how she would leave playing soccer with the girls to go cook at home. In rural areas, a young girl does not just cook and clean only, she also had to fetch water and get wood as well for the cooking. She grew up like many other girls in her community but the difference is that she had to endure a painful upbringing where the people she grew up amongst were the first to question her gender. Some children who would have to go through the kind of things she had to deal with, would have just hidden behind closed doors and given up on achieving their full potential. Not Caster Semenya. She had a talent at running and playing soccer and nothing would stand in her way of achieving her best and being among the best if not the best in the world.

Throughout junior championships of athletics it is reported that the doubting Thomasses who would question whether she is a boy or a girl. She left them to do what they do best, which is to talk a lot and run less, while she did what she knew best and that was to win races. Caster Semenya has had her right violated under three different constitutions. The first being under the United Nations Human Rights Act, the South African Constitution as well as the International Association of Athletics Federation’s Act. The IAAF broke there own rules by putting Caster through a gender verification during competition time which is against their own constitution which stipulates that such tests are to be conducted only after the competition is over. The announcement by the Secretary General of the IAAF that Caster had undergone gender verification tests is the same as a criminal killing someone and admitting in public that they did it but will resist being arrested. As for Athletics South Africa, their failure to listen to the team doctor and use Caster Semenya as a pawn for them getting a medal is rather shocking. You would expect that an association which has had many athletes being employed by it would by now know that expert advice is in many cases far better than gut feel. The Australian media has done a disservice to the IAAF by releasing confidential medical records which are only subject to doctor and patient confidentiality. South Africa as a signatory of the UNHRC is obliged under the Constitution to ensure that those who may be guilty of violating Caster Semenya’s rights are brought to book, and if need be, compensate her for all the humiliation she will have to live with for the rest of her life. The IAAF better act on the Italian athlete who came 6^th at the World champions and decided to call Caster Semenya the kind of names no individual is to ever be subjected too. You can always tell the difference between a winner and a looser. Losers never stop complaining instead of improving, while winners move from one obstacle to another with ease.

It is very unfortunate that ASA had to go through such lengths of using a vulnerable 18year old girl to achieve a medal after their failure to impress at the Beijing Olympics. Governance issues were broken by ASA which need thorough investigation and if push comes to shove, heads must roll very fast. The sooner the whole Caster Semenya gender verification issue gets sorted out, the better for the athlete as she is one talented girl who has shown the world what she is capable of and we hope to see much more of her in the coming years as she moves from one great season to another leaving the doubting Thomasses to always question her as she leaves them behind.

Can society please just let Caster be herself and stop trying to make her what we feel she should be! This 1 is for YOU magazine as well as DRUM.