OTTAWA, March 2: A young girl's expulsion from a Quebec soccer tournament this week for wearing a head scarf has split lawmakers, according to reports on Friday.

Asmahan Mansour, 11, was ousted from a tournament on Sunday in a Montreal suburb after refusing to take off her hijab.

Brigitte Frot, executive director of the Quebec Soccer Federation, told AFP she was not allowed on the field for safety reasons, not religious objections.

But Mansour and other Muslim women would not be allowed to play soccer in Canada's French-speaking Quebec province while wearing a head scarf, unless the world soccer federation FIFA loosened its head gear rules, she said.

“You can't hide a bomb under a hijab,” protested Conservative MP Wajid Khan, an adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the Middle East and South Asia.

“I think an 11-year-old girl, all she wants to do is play soccer. Let her play the game,” he told the Ottawa Citizen.

Earlier, Quebec Premier Jean Charest expressed support for the referee's decision, indicating that as a child playing soccer he was once asked to “tuck in his shirt.” His federal counterparts cried “nonsense” and “insensitive.” Liberal Senator Mobina Jaffer, the upper chamber's first Muslim member, echoed Khan, saying: “I was shocked ... How does a hijab get in the way at all playing soccer?” The incident had occurred about five minutes into a game on Sunday, when the Mansour's coach wished to substitute Mansour, who was not in the starting line-up, for another player.

Media reports said the referee, who is coincidentally Muslim himself, feared Mansour could be choked if the scarf were tugged on.

“Based on FIFA rules, the referee asked the young girl to remove her hijab, fearing it posed a danger to her and other players. She refused,” Frot said.

Mansour's Nepean Hotspurs Selects team quit the tournament to show solidarity with their teammate. Four other teams also joined the boycott.—AFP