British football: where are the Muslim female footballers? Exploring the connections between gender, ethnicity and Islam.

Ahmad, Aisha

This research article explores the ways in which self-recognition as a footballer, in terms of ethnicity, along with cultural values and religious adherence have impacted on the identities of members of the British Muslim Women's Football Team and their choice to compete at the Women's Islamic Games (WIG) in Iran in 2005. The article offers new information on an emerging research area, highlighting issues previously missing from accounts of girls and women's football in the UK. The article adopts a social constructionist framework in unravelling the experiences and perceptions of the British Muslim Women's Football Team and explores how identities are shaped and reinforced through playing football. The research findings of this study are based on five years of participant observation and 16 semi-structured interviews with members of the British Muslim Women's Football Team. Through a focus on interview transcript material this article seeks to entangle the complexity of gender, ethnicity and Islam and the ways in which these factors impact on the football identities of Muslim women in Britain. The experiences and perceptions of the players in the British Muslim Women's Football Team are located within British football, and importantly, the article investigates whether there is room for the hijab in British football.

IRAN; UNITED Kingdom; WOMEN football players; MUSLIMS; ISLAM; ETHNICITY; HIJAB (Islamic clothing); SOCCER for girls

Soccer & Society, 2011, Vol 12, Issue 3, p443

1466-0970

Academic Journal

10.1080/14660970.2011.568110