The Qatar women’s basketball team were forced to forfeit an Asian Games match yesterday after being told they were not allowed to wear their hijabs.

Before they took to the court to take on Mongolia, match officials asked the players to remove the Islamic headscarves as they had not received any instructions to allow the item of clothing to be worn during the match but the players refused to so, saying it violated their religious beliefs.

“The Qatari players refused to take off the hijab,” Asian Games organising committee spokeswoman Anna Jihyun You said. “At 4:25 pm local time (10 minutes after the scheduled start), the match was declared forfeited and awarded to Mongolia.”