Sports hijabs help Muslim women to Olympic success

New sportswear designed for women who want to cover up, and some important changes to the rules, are inspiring Muslim girls to take up sport – and compete internationally

Amid the furore over the state of undress of one of the UK's most successful female cyclists, the increasing aceptance of sportswear that allows Muslim women to compete has garnered little attention. Earlier this month Fifa finally overturned its ban, brought in in 2007, on women playing football with their heads covered. The decision came too late for the Iranian football team. It had already prevented them from playing in their 2012 Olympic qualifying match last year and disappointed their female fans in the football-mad Islamic Republic, where women are not allowed to watch men's matches and headscarves are mandatory for women. But the overturning of the ban was cheered by footballers around the world, some of whom, such as Australian Assmaah Helal, wear the hijab through choice.

London 2012 is the first Olympics where women will compete in all 26 sports on offer (although still in 30 fewer events in total), and Fifa is just one of several international bodies to relax clothing rules and so allow more Muslim women to compete in the Games. It's impossible to know how many women will be competing with their head covered this year, but they include judo player Wodjan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim and Saudi Arabian runner Sarah Attar, as well as footballers. Last year the International Weightlifting Federation also began to allow female weightlifters to cover their arms and legs, which led to the UAE female team being the first to compete in hijab, represented by 17-year-old Khadija Mohammed. Reports suggest that the ruling has opened up the sport for /muslim women.

What female athletes wear should get less attention than it does, but for many women who want to cover up, sports clothing can be a barrier to competition. Egyptian pentathlete Aya Medany, who already had to deal with the disruptions caused by the Arab Spring, considered not competing at all in the Olympics because female swimmers in her event have to wear suits that leave their necks, arms and half their legs uncovered.

Fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad, who will become the first person to represent the US at the Olympics wearing a hijab, says she chose her sport because it allowed her to cover her body without altering the uniform. Dr Emma Tarlo, a reader in anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London, and author of Visibly Muslim: Fashion, Politics, Faith, says such barriers to participation should not be underestimated. "I have done research that shows that women have been put off sport because of clothing – that's part of the problem with swimming for instance. Others have been excluded from sport because of what they wear."

"Sports clothing has lagged behind school uniforms and street style in terms of diversity." Which is why, she says, the new type of "sports hijab" has been so helpful. She cites the capster, a hood-style hijab that was created by Dutch designer Cindy van den Bremen, who started working on the design back in 1999 after cases of girls being excluded from PE lessons for wearing the hijab. It is designs such as this, she says, that have addressed health-and-safety concerns and allowed bans to be overturned.

It's not just the practicality of the design, but the image it portrays that helps. "Traditional scarves stick out in sport and are not made from appropriate materials. Because the new styles look sporty, the wearer is not highlighted as different in the same way." Tarlo says the importance of hijab-wearing athletes as role models should inspire many Muslim women and girls. "If you are sporty it's good to see people you can relate to, especially if sport has not been emphasised in your community. If you see sports people who share your values it can be a positive message. Especially as the Olympics is in east London, because this is a multicultural area with many Muslims, to have sportswomen the girls can relate to as role models is a positive thing." 

Rimla Akhtar from the Muslim Women in Sport Foundation said there were other barriers than dress holding women back, but it was important for women to have a choice: "A way has been found of combining women's passion for sport with their passion for their faith and the sports hijab will certainly aid women's participation in sport at all levels."

Sources:  http://www.theguardian.com/sport/the-womens-blog-with-jane-martinson/2012/jul/23/sports-hijabs-muslim-women-olympics