Muslim women in sport

Modern Muslim female athletes have achieved success in a variety of sports, including volleyball, tennis, association football, fencing, and basketball.

[4][5] Causes may include cultural or familial pressures, the lack of suitable facilities and programs, and bans on the hijab, the Islamic headscarf.

[14][15] From 2016, the policy received scrutiny from hundreds of thousands of individuals on social media, a movement that was headed by NCAA players Indira Kaljo and Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir.

[16] Fellow players Ezdihar Abdulmula, Asma Elbadawi, Ki-Ke Rafiu, Raisa Aribatul, Raabya Pasha, Merve Sapci, and Noha Berhan also created petitions asking FIBA to repeal the ban.

Abdul-Qaadir was the 2009 Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year, scored over 3,000 points during high school (a state record for both boys and girls), and was named to the C-USA All-Academic team during her career at the University of Memphis.

[20] Muslim women have also represented India (Fowzieh Khalili, Nuzhat Parween, Gouher Sultana, Nooshin Al Khadeer, and Rasanara Parwin) and South Africa (Shabnim Ismail).

[33] Abu Dhabi native Fatima Al Ali plays for the United Arab Emirates women's national ice hockey team.

Mariya Stadnik (48-kg wrestling) won silver for Azerbaijan, and Iranian Kimia Alizadeh Zenoorin and Egyptian Hedaya Malak tied for bronze in the 57-kg taekwondo event.

[41] A number of OIC member states are also experiencing rapid economic development and constructing tennis facilities on a previously unprecedented scale.

[42][43][44] Notable Muslim female tennis players include Zarina Diyas, Selima Sfar, Aravane Rezaï, Dinara Safina, Sania Mirza, Ons Jabeur, Mayar Sherif and Fatma Al-Nabhani.

[46] She has faced severe criticism from Muslim clerics in her native India, who condemn her decision to wear conventional tennis outfits as "indecent".

[45] At the 2016 Summer Olympics, Dalilah Muhammad became the first American woman to win a gold medal in the 400 metre hurdles, and is the world record holder in the event.

[47] Other notable Muslim track and field athletes include Sarah Attar, Sifan Hassan, who holds the world record in the Mile, Salwa Eid Naser, Enas Mansour, Dina el-Tabaa, Shinoona Salah Al-Habsi, Kariman Abulijadayel, Kamiya Yousufi, and Sulaiman Fatima Dahman.

At the 2016 Summer Olympics, Egyptian beach volleyball player Doaa Elghobashy made international headlines for competing in pants, a long-sleeved shirt, and a hijab.

[52] While she and her partner Nada Meawad did not advance to the knockout stage of the tournament, she saw the event as a chance to increase the visibility and participation of minorities in sports.

[54][55] Several Muslim women won medals in weightlifting during the 2012 & 2016 Summer Olympics, including Kazakh Zhazira Zhapparkul, Anna Nurmukhambetova, Indonesian Sri Wahyuni Agustiani, and Egyptian Sara Ahmed.

[6][56] In a study of Turkish middle schools, Hümeriç and colleagues found that girls were less likely to attend physical education classes, and were less active on average when they did participate.

[56] This discrepancy is often even more pronounced in Western countries, where school policies on dress code and opposite-sex interaction often conflict with conservative Muslim students' values.

In 2014, several members of Sport Against Racism Ireland created Diverse City FC, a football team for Muslim women that competed in the Fair Play Cup.

[65] Similarly, in 1993 Faezeh Hashemi founded the Women's Islamic Games, an international event where all athletes, coaches, officials, and spectators were female.

[68] In a study of young Muslim women living in the United Kingdom, Kay Tess found that family influences heavily impacted their ability to participate in sports.

[72] The same year marked the first time that the Olympic Committee took Ramadan into account, scheduling events with fasting athletes early in the morning so that they would be maximally fed and hydrated.

[77] Turkish national team player Esra Erol also reports that she was allowed to play football as a child, but that she faced greater scrutiny for her athletic pursuits as she reached adolescence and adulthood.

[7] At the same time, sociologist Kay Tess observed that some Muslim families view sports as an unnecessary distraction from education, which they see as highly important.

For example, when Afghan sprinter Robina Muqimyar competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics, Western media sources praised her for exchanging the burqa, which they saw as inherently oppressive, for sports attire.

Mahfoud Amara labels this type of coverage as "orientalist" and "culturally imperialistic", as it measures Muslim women's freedom and wellbeing by whether or not they conform to Western athletic norms and expectations.

Milliyet newspaper columnist Asu Maro documented two distinct sources of criticism she faced – Muslims who saw taekwondo itself as improper for women, and secular organizations that wanted her to remove her hijab during competitions.

[8] In a case study of the Palestinian women's national football team, Gieβ-Stüber and colleagues found that sport had become a "social movement for self-determination, agency, peace and friendship" in the players' lives.

[77] Local Palestinian leaders supported this movement by providing free tickets to home matches, and thousands of men and women attended.

For example, mountain climber Leila Bahrami called her successful ascent of Mount Everest a way to "show the world" that Muslim women are capable rather than "limited".