Shireen Ahmed | |
|---|---|
| Known for | Sports activism, writing, and public speaking |
| Website | http://www.shireenahmed.com/ |
Shireen Ahmed is a writer, public speaker, and award-winning sports activist focusing on Muslim women in sports, [1] [2] as well as the intersections of racism and misogyny in sports. [3] [4] [5]
Ahmed is well-known in the women in sports industry, a frequent commentator around intersectionality and freedom of identity practice within sports. [6] [7] In an interview with The McGill Daily , Ahmed explained what being a sports activist was:
"Advocating for equality and social justice by means of sports and advocating for the inclusion of Muslim and athletes of colour in sport. Sertaç Sehlikoglu, curator of Muslim women in Sports blog, coined the term." [8]
Ahmed actively engages with media producers in mainstream and alternative groups. [9] In one example, Ahmed responded to a documentary film about a women's soccer team in Zanzibar. In an interview with researchers for the study, "Radical Sports Journalism?: Reflections on 'Alternative' Approaches to Covering Sport-Related Social Issues," Ahmed explained, "The title of the movie was 'From Veils to Cleats.' I emailed them through Facebook. I didn't call them out. Basically, I said, when you use that title you're saying you can be either veiled or unveiled – that's it…If those women decide to take off their veils while they're playing that's their choice as long as they have a safe space to do it, but a lot of the women on that team don't unveil while they play so what are you actually saying here? So, they changed the title of their movie, which I felt was huge." [10]
She is part of the weekly podcast, Burn It All Down, the first feminist sports podcast to analyze sports culture from an intersectional feminist lens. [11] Her co-hosts are Hofstra University History Professor Brenda Elsey, author and sportswriter Jessica Luther, Lindsay Gibbs of ThinkProgress, and Penn State University Professor of History and Women's Gender, and Sexuality Studies Amira Rose Davis. [11] They have interviewed guests like ESPN's Jemele Hill, legendary sportscaster Andrea Kremer, WNBA's Layshia Clarendon and Essence Carson, and Brazilian soccer legends Sissi and Tafa. [12]
Ahmed was born to Pakistani parents in Halifax, Canada. [13] She attended the University of Toronto in Canada, and played soccer during college. [14] Ahmed now lives in Toronto, Canada with her family. [14]
Ahmed received the 2018 Naiem Malik Memorial Award for her advocacy work around Muslim women in sports. [15] She was also named to the Muslim Women in Sports Powerlist in 2018 and 2019. [16]
A hijab is a veil worn by certain Muslim women in the presence of any male outside of their immediate family or sometimes by men, which covers the head and chest. Another interpretation can also refer to the seclusion of women from men in the public sphere, whereas a metaphysical dimension, may refer to "the veil which separates man, or the world, from God".
The participation of women and girls in sports, physical fitness and exercise, has been recorded to have existed throughout history. However, participation rates and activities vary in accordance with nation, era, geography, and stage of economic development. While initially occurring informally, the modern era of organized sports did not begin to emerge either for men or women until the late industrial age.
Islamic clothing is clothing that is interpreted as being in accordance with the teachings of Islam. Muslims wear a wide variety of clothing, which is influenced not only by religious considerations, but also practical, cultural, social, and political factors. In modern times, some Muslims have adopted clothing based on Western traditions, while others wear modern forms of traditional Muslim dress, which over the centuries has typically included long, flowing garments. Besides its practical advantages in the climate of the Middle East, loose-fitting clothing is also generally regarded as conforming to Islamic teachings, which stipulate that body areas which are sexual in nature must be hidden from public view. Traditional dress for Muslim men has typically covered at least the head and the area between the waist and the knees, while traditional women's dress conceals the hair and the body from the ankles to the neck. Some Muslim women also cover their face. Islamic dress is influenced by two scriptural sources, the Quran and hadith. The Quran provides guiding principles believed to have come from God, while the body of hadith describes a human role model through the traditions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The branch of fashion industry influenced by Islamic principles is known as Islamic fashion.
A combination of Islam and feminism has been advocated as "a feminist discourse and practice articulated within an Islamic paradigm" by Margot Badran in 2002. Islamic feminists ground their arguments in Islam and its teachings, seek the full equality of women and men in the personal and public sphere, and can include non-Muslims in the discourse and debate. Islamic feminism is defined by Islamic scholars as being more radical than secular feminism and as being anchored within the discourse of Islam with the Quran as its central text. As a "school of thought", it is said to refer to Moroccan sociologist "Fatema Mernissi and scholars such as Amina Wadud and Leila Ahmed".
The Islamic scarf controversy in France, referred to there as l'affaire du voile, l'affaire du voile islamique, and l'affaire du foulard, arose in 1989, pertaining to the wearing of the hijab in French public schools. It involved issues of the place of Muslim women, differences between Islamic doctrine and Islamic tradition, the conflict between communitarianism and the French policy of minority assimilation, discussions of the "Islamist threat" to French society and of Islamophobia.
Leila Ahmed ; is an Egyptian-American scholar of Islam. In 1992 she published her book Women and Gender in Islam, which is regarded as a seminal historical analysis of the position of women in Arab Muslim societies. She became the first professor of women's studies in religion at Harvard Divinity School in 1999, and has held the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Divinity chair since 2003. In 2013, Ahmed received the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion for her analysis of the "veiling" of Muslim women in the United States, in which she described her rejection of her own previous critiques of the veil as sexist in favor of the view that the veil, when voluntarily chosen, is a progressive and feminist act. As such, she now supports Muslim women who advocate for the veil as a symbol of progressivism and feminism, although Ahmed herself does not practice veiling.
During the late 20th and early 21st centuries in Iran, women's rights have been severely restricted compared with those in most developed nations. The World Economic Forum's 2017 Global Gender Gap Report ranked Iran 140 out of 144 countries for gender parity. In 2017 in Iran, females comprised just 19% of the paid workforce with seven percent growth since 1990. In 2017, the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Index ranked Iran in the bottom tercile of 153 countries. Compared to other South Asian regions, women in Iran have a better access to financial accounts, education, and cellphones. Iran was ranked 116 out of the 153 countries in terms of legal discrimination against women.
The word hijab refers to both the head-covering traditionally worn by many Muslim women and to the concept of modesty in Islam generally. Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran are the only countries where the hijab is compulsory.
Ibtihaj Muhammad is an American sabre fencer and member of the United States fencing team. She is known for being the first Muslim American woman to wear a hijab while competing for the United States in the Olympics, as well as for winning an Olympic medal (bronze) wearing it.
The national federation was created in 1956 and became a FIFA affiliate in 1956. However women's football is not included in the country's FIFA coordinated Goals! project. By 2011, inside the Saudi Arabia Football Federation, there has been an effort to create women's football programs at universities. Input had been sought on how to do this from other national federations including ones from the United States, Germany, Brazil and the United Kingdom. On the men's side of the game, the national federation has funded efforts to improve the quality of the national football team.
World Hijab Day is an annual event founded by Nazma Khan in 2013, taking place on 1 February each year in 140 countries worldwide. Its stated purpose is to encourage women of all religions and backgrounds to wear and experience the hijab. Event organizers describe it as an opportunity for non-Muslim women to experience the hijab.
On 8 January 1936, pro-western ruler Reza Shah Pahlavi of Iran (Persia) issued a decree known as Kashf-e hijab banning all Islamic veils, an edict that was swiftly and forcefully implemented. The government also banned many types of male traditional clothing. Since then, the Hijab issue has become controversial in Iranian politics. One of the enduring legacies of Reza Shah has been turning dress into an integral problem of Iranian politics.
Zahra Noorbakhsh is an Iranian-American comedian, writer, actor and co-host of the #GoodMuslimBadMuslim podcast. The New Yorker called her one-woman show All Atheists Are Muslim a highlight of the New York International Fringe Festival. She is a contributor to the New York Times featured anthology Love Inshallah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women, with a monthly column entitled, "My Infidel Husband". Noorbakhsh was a featured comic at the first-ever Muslim Funny Fest in New York City.
Islamic fashion as a phenomenon stemmed from the combination of a set of Islamic practices and of the rising need and desire to include these specific clothing items in a broader fashion industry. The global growth of “an Islamic consumer sector, which explicitly forges links between religiosity and fashion, encouraging Muslims to be both covered and fashionable, modest and beautiful,” is relatively fresh: Islamic Fashion as a particular phenomenon started appearing toward the 1980s.
Muslim women have been involved in sport since Islam's beginning in the early 7th century. Modern Muslim female athletes have achieved success in a variety of sports, including volleyball, tennis, association football, fencing, and basketball. In the 2016 Summer Olympics, fourteen women from Muslim-majority countries won medals, participating in a wide range of sports.
White feminism is a term used to describe expressions of feminism which are perceived as focusing on the struggles of white women while failing to address distinct forms of oppression faced by ethnic minority women and women lacking other privileges, which ultimately functions to marginalize women of color. White feminism as a term has been used to label and criticize theories that are perceived as focusing solely on gender-based inequality, failing to acknowledge and integrate the notion of intersectionality in the struggle for equality. The term has also been used to refer to theories perceived to focus more specifically on the experience of white, cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied women, and in which the experiences of women without these characteristics are excluded or marginalized. This criticism has predominantly been leveled against the first waves of feminism which were seen as centered around the empowerment of white middle-class females in Western societies.
Hijabophobia is a type of religious and cultural discrimination against Muslim women who wear the hijab. The discrimination has had manifestations in public, working and educational places.
Islamic feminist views on dress codes include feminist views on the issues surrounding women's dress codes in the Islamic religion.
Burqa by country.
Brenda Elsey is an American historian commonly known for researching about topics of History of Latin America such as politics, football or gender roles. Since 2008, she has been the co-director of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies program at Hofstra University. Similarly, she directed there the Women’s Studies program from 2009 to 2013.
