No Women, No Games

South Africa was banned from the Olympics for years because of racial discrimination. Women’s rights activists are now demanding similar sanctions for Iran and other nations that exclude female athletes from their teams.

Atlanta Plus, a coalition of activists from Europe, the United States and North Africa, launched its campaign in Paris this week with a symposium featuring Muslim women with first-hand knowledge of sex discrimination in the Islamic world.

Groundwork for the campaign began months ago. Olympic corporate sponsors have been approached, and a letter was sent in September to the International Olympic Committee’s president, Juan Antonio Samaranch, demanding that countries excluding women athletes be banned from the 1996 Games in Atlanta.

The IOC’s headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, said the matter was being considered.