![Sample our Sports and Leisure journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5949/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Sports-Leisure.jpg"})
Abstract
In the wake of the Arab Spring, there has been increased interest in female athleticism in the Middle East. In part, this stems from the fact that women have participated in the uprisings in unprecedented numbers. It is also tied to larger socio-economic changes that have occurred in the Middle East, both before and after the rebellions. Based on fieldwork and in-depth interviews, the present study offers an ethnographic account of an all-female soccer team in Sulaimani, a somewhat culturally progressive city located in north-east Iraqi Kurdistan. A growing body of academic research considers the impact of female Muslim athleticism in the Middle East, but the Kurdish region of Iraq remains virtually unexamined. As Kurdish female Muslim athletes, the women in this study, experience a complex set of interwoven social forces that include family, religion, gender, identity and the pro-democracy movements sweeping through the Middle East. In exploring these themes, I demonstrate how the culture of Iraqi Kurdistan shapes – and is shaped by – its young female athletes.
Notes
1. Amara, Sport, Politics and Society, 116.
2. Bahrain: Al-Ansari, ‘Women in Sports Leadership’, 2011; Egypt: Walseth and Fasting, ‘Islam’s View’, 2003; Iran: Pfister, ‘Women and Sport in Iran’, 2003; Oman: Al-Sinani and Benn, ‘The Sultanate of Oman’, 2011; Palestine: Gieb-Stuber et al., ‘Palestinian Women’s’, 2011; Qatar: Harkness and Islam, ‘Muslim Female Athletes’, Syria: Karfoul, ‘Women and Sport in Syria’, 2011; Turkey: Koca and Hacisoftaoglu, ‘Struggling for Empowerment’, 2011; the United Arab Emirates: Gaad, ‘A Case Study’, 2011; the Middle East as a whole: Sfeir, ‘The Status of Muslim Women’, 1985.
3. Australia: Palmer, ‘Soccer and the Politics’, 2009; Britain: Dagkas and Benn, ‘Young Muslim Women’s’, 2006; Kay, ‘Daughters of Islam’, 2006; Canada: Nakamura, ‘Beyond the Hijab’, 2002; Denmark: Pfister, ‘Muslim Women’, 2011; Germany: Kleindienst-Cachay, ‘Balancing Between’, 2011; Greece: Dagkas and Benn, ‘Young Muslim Women’s’, 2006; Norway: Strandbu, ‘Identity, Embodied Culture’, 2005; Scotland: Siraj, ‘Meanings of Modesty’, 2011; and South Africa: Essa, ‘Challenges Facing’, 2011.
4. Al-Wattar, Hussein and Hussein, ‘Women’s Narratives of Sport’ 2011; Soubhi, ‘Physical Education’, 1977.
5. Soubhi, ‘Physical Education’, 109.
6. Ibid., 108–9.
7. Al-Wattar, Hussein and Hussein, ‘Women’s Narratives of Sport’, 250–51.
8. Sage, Globalizing Sport, 208.
9. Al-Wattar, Hussein and Hussein, ‘Women’s Narratives of Sport’, 250–51.
10. Soubhi, ‘Physical Education’, 107.
11. Al-Wattar, Hussein and Hussein, ‘Women’s Narratives of Sport’, 251.
13. Amnesty International, 24.
14. Sfeir, ‘The Status of Muslim Women’, 290, 288.
15. Ibid., 289.
16. Ibid., 292.
17. This attitude towards girls playing football or even riding a bicycle can be found across the region. See for example the film by Khadija al-Salaami about Najmia, a 13-year-old girl in Sana’a who played soccer against boys and rides everywhere, encountering threats and condemnation, from men, women and kids of both sexes. The first part is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PakPFZQA6EM
18. Nydell, Understanding Arabs, 72.
19. Kay, ‘Daughters of Islam’, 360.
20. Nydell, Understanding Arabs, 72.
21. Ibid., 43.
22. Soubhi, ‘Physical Education’, 108.
23. Pfister, ‘Muslim Women and Sport’, 61.
24. Kay, ‘Daughters of Islam’, 365.
25. Benn, Pfister and Jawad, ‘Introduction: Muslim Women’, 1.
26. Siraj, ‘Meanings of Modesty’, 727.
27. Ibid., 718.
28. Nakamura, ‘Beyond the Hijab’, 2002.
29. Siraj, ‘Meanings of Modesty’, 719.
30. Ibid., 723.
31. Pfister, ‘Muslim Women and Sport’, 63.
32. Sfeir, ‘The Status of Muslim Women’, 284.
33. Ibid., 300.
34. Nydell, Understanding Arabs, 43.
35. Al-Ali, ‘Iraqi Women and Gender’, 113.
36. Al-Khayyat, Worlds Apart, 418.
37. Begikhani, Gill and Hague, ‘Honour-based Violence’, 26. For information on honour-based violence towards women in Iraqi Kurdistan see Begikhani, ‘Honour-based Violence Among the Kurds’. For general information on Kurdish women see Mason, ‘Honor-Bound’; Mojab, Women of a Non-State Nation.
38. Soubhi, ‘Physical Education’, 8.
39. Sfeir, ‘The Status of Muslim Women’, 295.
40. Nydell, Understanding Arabs, 45.
41. Al-Ali, ‘Iraqi Women and Gender’, 120.
42. Ibid., 122.
43. Sfeir, ‘The Status of Muslim Women’, 283.
44. For example, Bell,‘‘Knowing What My Body Can Do’’; Brace-Govan, ‘Looking at Body Work’; Gilroy, ‘The EmBody-ment of Power’; Palmer, ‘Soccer and the Politics’; Kelly, Pomerantz and Currie, ‘‘You Can Break’’; and McDermott, ‘Towards a Feminist Understanding of Physicality’.Strandbu, ‘Identity, Embodied Culture’.
45. Soubhi, ‘Physical Education’, 109.
46. Kay, ‘Daughters of Islam’, 370.
47. Hanisch, ‘The Personal is Political’, 1970.
48. Butterworth, ‘The Politics of the Pitch’, 185.
49. Harkness and Islam, ‘Muslim Female Athletes’, 64.
50. Arango, Tim and Michael S. Schmidt, ‘Anger Lingers in Iraqi Kurdistan After a Crackdown’, New York Times, 18 May 2011.