On Bias in Sports
If there’s one event to capture the world's attention towards the end of 2022, it should be the ongoing FIFA World Cup, the second most watched sporting event that's held only quadrennially. Besides the deafening roar of fan-packed stadiums and its far-reaching fanfares, there are facets of this world cup that are oftentimes overlooked, like Qatar's heinous human rights records that built the stadiums with something comparable to modern day slavery.
One of such issues is gender equality, that recently made headlines with Iranian protestors, a close ally of Qatar. And if one compares the popularity of this (male) world cup to its female counterpart, it's not hard to realize the latter had been dwarfed by the former pretty much since their inception. On the sidelines, I had some online discussions on this subject, which quickly deteriorated into a debate, first heated, then ugly.