Hey, sports media--enough about Sania Mirza and the Muslim thing

Rising Indian WTA star Sania Mirza gets a lot of questions about her stardom in India, and about her fearlessness on court, but she also gets another question over and over: "How do you wear shorts and still honor your Muslim religion?" Mirza is poised enough to handle this question--"There are no perfect Muslims," she says, and changes the subject.

Of course, any time the sports media has a chance to talk about a woman's appearance, it's a good day for them, but Mirza's situation creates an angle that's new to the tennis scene. And that would be okay, I guess, if tennis reporters were also asking other players about how their clothing jives with their religious beliefs. The Williiams sisters come to mind: They are supposedly devout Jehovah's Witnesses (in the first episode of their recent reality show, Venus complains that doing yoga exercises violates her Christian beliefs), yet they wear sexually provocative clothing, participate in competitive sports, and represent their nation at the Olympics--all activities that are supposedly looked down on by their religion. The fact that the media never ask them about this leads me to the conclusion that certain players are off-limits for these kinds of irrelevant questions, but a Muslim woman is fair game.