LOS ANGELES. April 28, 2006. The design of most modern sportswear puts many Muslim women athletes in a curious bind: adhere to their faith and have their motions hampered or compromise their beliefs in the name of athletic performance?The Koran requires women to cover everything except their faces, hands, and feet, says Tayyibah Taylor, editor-in-chief of Azizah Magazine, a publication geared toward Muslim-American women. "The idea is that your modesty in dress and behavior is a passport to public space," Taylor said. "It makes the statement that a Muslim woman's body is not a part of the public conversation."
Let me suggest that Islam doesn't want Muslim woman to be part of the public conversation at all.
Recently Muslim women living in a Somali refugee camp in Kenya were given unique new volleyball uniforms. Designed through a partnership between Nike and the United Nations, the uniforms permit the women athletes to dig, spike, and set while covering their bodies and heads in a way that remains true to their faith.
But don't look for such specialized gear at your local mall or sporting-goods store just yet. Nike spokesperson Alan Marks says the Beaverton, Oregon, company currently has no plans to commercialize the product. And most other major sportswear manufacturers have no lines specifically targeting Muslim women.
Today a scattering of small companies is the only commercial source of sportswear for the modest-minded. Finding appropriate exercise wear is something that Muslim women have struggled with for years, says Laila Al-Marayati, spokesperson for the Los Angeles, California-based Muslim Women's League.
She says some women and girls choose to work out in long-sleeved shirts and sweatpants, but that is only a partial solution. "Muslim women sometimes will prefer to go to all-female gyms or work out at home, so they can exercise comfortably and not be overwhelmed with heat exhaustion," Al-Marayati said.
| Too bad they haven't yet come up with a light, breatheable fabric for their burqas. |
| Muslim girls football with veils and burqas: hmmm, wonder if I can sell that idea to ESPN3 ... |
The Hijood is a close-fitting head covering made of a lightweight fabric.
| "We modeled it on a white hood seen in parts of America a hundred years ago." |
Zanetti also developed a line of swimwear for Muslim women, which incorporates a long-sleeved top, close-fitting hood, and long pants, all made of a stretchy, lightweight fabric.
| The spandex burqa! |
That's welcome news to girls like Zarina Jalal, a high school student who lives just outside of Albany, New York. "If there was a way that I could do swimming without baring myself as much as I'm required to, then I'd definitely take up swimming more often," she said.
| "Unless my husband tells me to stay home and cook him a chicken, of course." |
Taylor, of Azizah Magazine, sees great market potential for sportswear more appropriate for Muslim women. "In another 15 years there's going to be a sizeable Muslim consumer market and lots of demand," she said. "I think we're where the Hispanic market was 20 years ago, and today the Hispanic market is a big consumer market."
Arun Jain, a marketing professor at the University of Buffalo in New York State, agrees. He says, given the growth potential of the Muslim community in the United States, major sportswear manufacturers could be missing out on an opportunity to break into an emerging market. "I believe it's a strategic blunder on their part," Jain said. "My feeling is that they don't think there's that much buying power, but I am certain that they're mistaken.
"If customers are given what they are looking for, they will be willing to pay, even at a higher price," he said.
Yuka Nakamura, a doctoral candidate in physical education and health at the University of Toronto in Canada, has studied Muslim women's participation in sports. She says there's definitely a need for modest sportswear, even beyond Muslim communities. She cites a program at a pool in Calgary, Canada, that tried to encourage more Muslim women to take up swimming by allowing them to wear T-shirts in the pool. "It wasn't just Muslim women who wanted this," she said. "An increasing number of women felt more comfortable being covered up and even larger men who felt uncomfortable in a bathing suit and preferred to be in a T-shirt."
Azizah's Taylor agrees. "It's not only Muslim women who are making attempts to be modest when they go out," she said. "There's also a contingency of Christian women and Jewish women and others who just don't feel that they need to show their bodies. Other women are striving to be modest as well."
| If a Muslim woman wants to wear a T-shirt in a pool because she's uncomfortable, fine. If she wants to wear a hajib to demonstrate her piety to God, no problem. If she feels she has to wear a burqa because if she doesn't some hard boyz from the 'Committee for the Protection of Virtue' are going to beat the crap out of her, then we have a problem. Wonder if any of the people quoted in this article understand the difference? |