Basketball enthusiasts around the world said a decision to allow players to wear religious headgear in competition will encourage more people to play the sport because it gives participants the right to practice their faith and focus on playing ball.

The unanimous vote Thursday by international basketball's governing body, known as FIBA, allows female players to wear hijabs and male players to wear turbans and yarmulkes following a ban initially imposed for safety reasons 20 years ago. In 2014, FIBA allowed a two-year testing phase for head coverings.

"I think we came out in a good place, at the right place," said USA Basketball CEO Jim Tooley, who is on the FIBA executive committee. "I think it's a good step for FIBA to put this issue kind of behind it and go from there."

Iranian national basketball team player Shadi Abdolvand said basketball will change in Iran because younger players will be encouraged to "pursue their goals."

"The end of this month there is a Western Asian tournament and we were looking forward to hearing the news that we can take part," she said. The team's dream is to compete with the world's top players and "see if we can get much better than what we are now," she said.

The rule, which goes into effect Oct. 1, requires headgear to be black, white or the same dominant color as the uniform for all players. It cannot cover any part of the face, have no opening or closing elements around the face and/or neck, and have no parts that extrude from its surface. The effort to push the governing body to change its regulations dates back several years. Other sports, including soccer, had already relaxed such regulations.

Athlete Ally - an organization dedicated to end homophobia and transphobia in sports and to educate athletic communities to stand up against discrimination - joined with Shirzanan, a media and advocacy organization for Muslim female athletes, to send a letter to FIBA on Jan. 25, urging leaders to "immediately lift the ban on religious headgear." The letter was signed by many WNBA players, including rookie of the year Breanna Stewart.

That letter came a few years after American-Muslim basketball player Indira Kajlo helped campaign to have FIBA loosen its restrictions on headgear. She started an online petition that drew around 70,000 signatures. She also worked with members of the Sikh community in India, as well as hearing from women in Turkey, Sweden and the UK who expressed their support.

Kajlo, who has played professionally in Ireland and Bosnia, said she had to choose between her faith and the sport she loved when she decided to wear the hijab a few years ago.

"It's a horrible feeling. There's nothing in the world like having to choose between your faith and something you love," she said.

Muslim female athletes have long fought to have the right to play the sport of their choice in modest attire and in hijab. For the 2012 London Olympics, the International Olympic Committee and the International Judo Federation agreed to allow Saudi judo player Wojdan Shahrkhani to compete while wearing a headscarf. She made history that year as one of the first Saudi women to ever compete in the Olympics.

American fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad became the first athlete to wear a hijab while competing for the United States in the Rio Olympics, earning a bronze medal as part of Team USA.