Women-only swimming as a space of belonging

ABSTRACT

The female Muslim body has come under close political and public scrutiny in many Western societies. Within sport, too, Muslim women’s dress and practices have become topics of discussion. For example, gender-segregated swimming sessions catering for Muslim women have caused disputes in several European countries, including Denmark. Nevertheless, the perspectives of participants are absent in such discussions and research about the significance of sports and physical activity for minority-ethnic groups is sparse. The aim of this article is to explore the meanings Danish Muslim women ascribe to their participation in a gender-segregated swimming space. Drawing on transnational feminism that foregrounds the voices of ‘othered’ women, this article presents the results of a study, in which we used participant observation and interviews with club officials and 14 Muslim women. The participants connected swimming with well-being and self-care and portrayed women-only swimming as a space of belonging, where they felt comfortable and safe and were not only protected from the male but also the ‘white’ gaze that they encountered in other situations, such as when wearing a burkini on the beach. Consequently, contestations of belonging ‘outside’ gave particular value to the women-only swimming pool as a space free from such contestations. This finding demonstrates how Muslim women’s experiences with sport and physical activity are shaped by current public and political discourses on immigration and integration in Western societies.

KEYWORDS:

• Sport
• physical activity
• Muslim women
• minority ethnic women
• integration
• migration
• transnational feminism
• community

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the two sport clubs who granted us access and all the women who shared their stories with us.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Danish Ministry of Culture’s research council.

Notes on contributors

Verena Lenneis

Verena Lenneis is a sport sociologist and works as an assistant professor at the Department of Health Science and Technology at Aalborg University, Denmark. Her research focuses in particular on minority-ethnic women’s participation in sport and physical activity, paying specific attention to the intersections between gender, ‘race’/ethnicity and social class.

Sine Agergaard

Sine Agergaard is a social anthropologist and works as a professor at the Department of Health Science and Technology at Aalborg University, Denmark, where she is head of the research group ‘Sports and Social Issues’. She is also a co-founder and currently the chair of the ‘International Network for Research in Sports and Migration Issues’.

Adam B. Evans

Adam B. Evans is Associate Professor in Sociology of Sport in the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sport, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. His research coheres around the sociological, embodied aspects of participation in sport, exercise and physical activity, particularly in relation to gender, ageing and health.