Sociology of Sport and Physical Activity: Muslim Women in Sport

This report delves into the sociology of sport, specifically examining the participation of Muslim women in sports and physical activity. It explores the historical and contemporary challenges faced by Muslim women, including cultural barriers, gender inequality, and religious beliefs. The report analyzes evidence from a sociological perspective, considering factors such as age, socio-economic status, and religious identity, and how these impact participation. It also provides a critical understanding of sociological theories, like gender inequality, to explain issues in sport and exercise. Furthermore, the report addresses contemporary and vocationally relevant issues, such as education and access to opportunities, highlighting the need for equal opportunities and societal changes to promote the inclusion of Muslim women in sports. The report emphasizes the need for understanding and addressing these challenges to foster a more inclusive and equitable sporting environment.

Sociology of sport and
physical activity – Muslim
women in sport

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Analysis of evidence in sport and exercise from a sociological perspective...............................3
Critical understanding of sociological theory in explaining issues in sport and exercise...........5
Contemporary and vocationally relevant issues in sport and society..........................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
The whole world of sport is mainly male dominated and women are not considered for
these challenges. Muslim religion not allows them to participate in sports especially to women.
In this report Muslim women in sport and their contemporary issues are explained. They face
various obstacles to participate in sports. Commonly it is disbelieved that Islam does not give
permission to join sport (Toffoletti and Palmer, 2017). Muslim athletes have few things in
common like they all have to try to navigate complexity of their own identities. Every woman
has right tom make decision based on their own values, expectation, obligation and whatever
they want to do, does not matter who are they and from which religion they belong. In this report
we will focus on exercise and sport from sociological perspective, sociological theories which
explains issues and vocationally and contemporary relevant issues in society and sport.
MAIN BODY
Analysis of evidence in sport and exercise from a sociological perspective
Social theory and sociology of sport explain issues regarding Muslim women in sport.
Social factors which are heading on participation in sport and exercise and potential health
benefits. Factors which may intensify participation such as age, sexual orientation, socio-
economic status, gender race and religion. And these factors affect in every field. In sports the
most factor which affect the participation is religion and gender. Islam people believe that
woman who is Muslim cannot participate in any exercise, sport and physical activity. Cultural
studies, related areas and psychology emphasize intersecting cultural identities and call for
advocacy and social action. Religious identity may salient in family gatherings but it is not
salient in athletics. And society raise questions when a girl or Muslim woman plays in athletics.
Participants who participate in physical activities are diverse., but not as much the broader
population (Stride, 2014).
Competitive athletics are limited in terms of the cultural diversity. All physical activities
have cultural restrictions. Gender and religion are particular cultural influences which are clearly
visible, and leads to restriction in exercise, sport and performance settings. Sports performing
religious rituals like stopping to pray when they entered to the ground are becoming major
prevalent at sport events. Sometimes athletes become more religious believer when they play
sport and start defining their participation in term of religion. Sport at recreational or competitive

and social elite level that can be considered as small scale variant of society. The issues which
exist in society that also exist in sport and exercise. If sport is considered as microcosm of
society then it is determined that sport teams are minor society. Sociology of sport is helps to
knowing issues of sport and how to solve them. In case of Islam sport, it is not considered for
woman because there are many restrictions for a Muslim woman, they believe that if a woman
participate in sport, that woman has to remove hijab and can not pray for five times in a day
during sport. Some of most powerful people in daily aspects of physical activity and sport are
parents in youth programs setting, community members and volunteer coaches who use social
roles to progress preferred forms of the sport for participants, neighbourhoods and teams
(Houlihan and Malcolm, 2015).
The skills which are required in these categories of applied activity are not officially
sanctioned, but any kind of ethical advocacy for physical activity and sport which advances
preferred society will include such as study of leadership issues, access and local policies,
voluntary study of social science perspective and social movement, willingness to ask hard
questions about advancing exercise and sport. Sociology of sport and exercise focuses on social
practices and shared beliefs which constitute particular forms of sport and exercise. These
prospective gives people with various ways to think about exercise and sport and find out
difference between binary division. Sports have always been enormous impact to whole world as
well as society of individuals and who lives in it. Sports and exercise include attempting to
established, exercise good morals, ethics and community values. Problems like injuries in world
of sports are unavoidable. Sociology helps to explain reasons for problem occurred, that can be
beneficial. Muslim religion thinks that women are not meant for the competitive events and they
are fragile (Long, Fletcher and Watson, 2017).
Traditional expectations focuses on role of women as a mother and wives so sport as a
male domain. Cultural barriers for sport participation, they are unique in Muslim societies. No
muslim family do not encourage participation in sport because they believe in religion and
culture more and thinks that it does not allow to play women in sport. In Islam religion there are
barriers for a women to get education or any other activity, their religion and culture limit them
to in every field of activities. The world is different for men and women even though they look
similar. They are not treated in same way in any field such as sport. For Muslim woman hijab,
which covers head is a traditional ritual which is a major issue in sport. Due to lack of awareness

and misinterpretation of religion, many Muslim woman do not allowed to participate in sports.
As sports is about socialize with different people and other cultural people because of that Islam
people do not permit women to participate in sports and exercise. The lifestyle of that particular
domain affect to individual so it is one of the reasons. The environment in which a Muslim
woman grows is different and has several boundaries which limit a woman for every activity.
Dress code in sport is an issue for Muslim woman, because it is very different from their culture
(Walseth, 2016). Sport contains various kind of exercise and physical activity because of that
Muslim people thinks that women can not do all those things only man can.
Critical understanding of sociological theory in explaining issues in sport and exercise
Sports and exercise can be described as a kind of physical activities which are part of
every individual to make them feel relaxed and healthy. Sociological theory in context of sports
& exercise is known as sports sociology which consist study of relationship between sports and
society. However, it involves cultural and values of people which impacts on sports and exercise
due which they differentiate between male and female in order to make decision that which
sports is favourable for whom. In addition to this, sociological theory provide help to analyse
that how sports influences culture, values and relationship among sports and media, politics,
economics, religion, race, gender, youth and many more. Meanwhile, this theory is very
supportive to analyse relationship between sports and social inequality & social mobility. It is
helpful to study about issues related to sports and exercise in which some of them are described
below.
Gender Inequality – This can be considered broad field of sociologist theory in order to study
about gender inequality in context of sports in which people think that women should not prefer
sports but man can do the same. It includes that people think that sports is not suitable for
women but only favourable for men which is not correct practically (Meek and Lewis, 2014). In
addition to this, participation of women is discouraged or banned in society specially, for Muslim
females, it become contemporary issue. Moreover, it is analysed that people do discrimination
between men and women while preferring sports activities. For example, women runners get
banned while taking part in regular marathon and this problem is mostly faced by Muslim
females which is not correct for the, they did not get sports opportunities to select a career and
become successful life. In context of Muslim women, it has been analysed that they get bounded
on the basis of religious as well as cultural norms while participate in sports & exercise. People

did not allow ladies to go outside and gain opportunity of sports as they feel that ladies are not
capable to do tough physical work or any sports activity.
Gender Identity – In present scenario, discrimination is reduced much bit still it is present in
mind set of people due to which they make negative perception about female sports person.
People allow girls in present time to make sports as career but provide limited choices which are
easy and consisting lack of hard physical work. In context of Muslim women, it has been
analysed that people they have very limited options to do in life in which sports in not included
and many of families only provide basic education and make them able to become a good house
wife rather than a successful working woman (Miles and Benn, 2016). This community believe
that providing freedom to women or allow them to play sports is against their religious norms
which is not forgive by their culture. At the other hand, it is evaluated that schools are not
providing programs for girls such as football, wrestling and boxing which impact negatively on
mind set of these females and they feel discriminated. They cannot play their favourite games to
enjoy their childhood due to restrictions of Muslim culture which is not appropriate for their
future. The one major problem is identified that tough sports activities can be categorised as
masculine sports whereas easy & comfortable will be considered as feminine sports. This
provides instructions that which one of sports activities can be preferred by women which is a
contemporary issue in present time. It is necessary for people to understand that women are equal
to men and they can do better than them in terms of sports and girls can make a successful career
in this field which is favourable for their whole life to remain happy.
Sociological theory sates that cultural believes and superstitions due to which they think that
omen is only capable to conduct tasks of housewife then they should focus on that only. It
includes that discrimination with women is creating major contemporary as it impacts on their
lives and complete freedom to them toward sports facilitate them to become successful person in
future (Elliott and Hoyle, 2014). After getting much education and legal rules, people allow girls
for their choices of sports but Muslim women still face several problems and restrictions while
going to participate in sports as it impact negatively on their career and future. It is necessary to
government bodies to make sure that equal opportunities are provided to all the women in
society because it is very important for development of overall society.

Contemporary and vocationally relevant issues in sport and society
Through analysing about discrimination with Muslim women regarding participation in sports
and exercise, it has been analysed that ladies did not get proper sports opportunity. Similarly,
there are several ways through which women get differentiated than men which impact on their
whole life and this will not focussed by people living in society. They only understand the wrong
things of females and restrict them for many of opportunities that can make their life secure and
prosperous in society in proper manner (Mirsafian, Dóczi and Mohamadinejad, 2014). There are
various modes on the basis of which people do critical differentiation with women that is not
appropriate for their favourable lives.
Education – This can be described as to provide access of education to children from their
childhood and further in colleges to make a successful career to have a prosperous life ahead. In
context of women, some people make them illiterate and uneducated as they believe that girls did
not need education to become housewife. However Muslim, community provide their girls
limited or equal to none of education because of their negative thinking and did not want to make
women working as an employee in public or private organisation.
Job opportunities – The job opportunities for females are limited in several countries as
they avoid force jobs and other tough jobs for women as the vacancies are available for men
only. However, in private organisations, people prefer to hire men as they believe that males are
more capable in order to provide more productivity on regular basis which is favourable for
profits of business. At the other hand, people said that only teaching or baking is suitable for
females and they are not eligible for doing job in police force or armed forces. In context of
Muslim women, they did allow doing a job outside and parents prefer to organise marriage of
these girls before their mature age (Ratna and Samie, 2017).
Sports and exercise – The sports and exercise are physical activities which require
sufficient amount of energy and these procedures area helpful for an individual to remain relaxed
as well as healthy. However, every person is required to prefer sports and exercise to reduce
tiredness and remain always healthy. In addition to this, people discriminate in sports by
categorising the same as masculine and feminine sports in which limited activities can be done
by females. In Muslim community, girls did not get access to any sports program in their school
time which id discrimination faced by them in their childhood. People make them learn that they
should learn homemade works rather than sports and other career.

Salaries and incentives – The salary package is very important for an employee when they
get a job because it should be sufficient to fulfil basic needs of them. It is expected by every staff
member in an organisation that some of amounts if incentives and occasional bonuses should be
provided to them. In present time, it has been determined that women did not get any incentives
or bonus on festivals in some of companies but male employees gain monthly compensation and
extra amount of money on special occasions which is also a discriminating criteria in society for
females. It is necessary for government authorities to make sure that legal rules to remove
discrimination between men and women are followed accurately or not. Only legal rules van
remove discrimination when government will punish organisations and institutions for such
aspects then society will become favourable for women to gain success in life.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it has been concluded that sociological perspective can include the
relationship between society and sports on the basis of social factors. However, it consist
sociological theory which helps to understand relationship between social factors and sports in
order to provide access of the same to women. In addition to this, Muslim women face gender
discrimination and identity to measure their capability to prefer sports and exercise which is
contemporary issues. People in society are doing discrimination with females in several ways
such as Education, Job opportunities, Sports & exercise and Salaries & incentives.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Toffoletti, K. and Palmer, C., 2017. New approaches for studies of Muslim women and sport.
International Review for the Sociology of Sport. 52(2). pp.146-163.
Stride, A., 2014. Let US tell YOU! South Asian, Muslim girls tell tales about physical education.
Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy. 19(4). pp.398-417.
Houlihan, B. and Malcolm, D. eds., 2015. Sport and society: a student introduction. Sage.
Long, J., Fletcher, T. and Watson, B. eds., 2017. Sport, leisure and social justice. Taylor &
Francis.
Walseth, K., 2016. Sport within Muslim organizations in Norway: Ethnic segregated activities as
arena for integration. Leisure Studies. 35(1). pp.78-99.
Meek, R. and Lewis, G. E., 2014. Promoting well-being and desistance through sport and
physical activity: the opportunities and barriers experienced by women in English
prisons. Women & Criminal Justice. 24(2). pp.151-172.
Miles, C. and Benn, T., 2016. A case study on the experiences of university-based Muslim
women in physical activity during their studies at one UK higher education institution.
Sport, Education and Society. 21(5). pp.723-740.
Elliott, D. and Hoyle, K., 2014. An examination of barriers to physical education for Christian
and Muslim girls attending comprehensive secondary schools in the UK. European
Physical Education Review. 20(3). pp.349-366.
Mirsafian, H., Dóczi, T. and Mohamadinejad, A., 2014. Attitude of Iranian female university
students to sport and exercise. Iranian studies. 47(6). pp.951-966.
Ratna, A. and Samie, S. F. eds., 2017. Race, Gender and Sport: The Politics of Ethnic'other'Girls
and Women. Routledge.