![]() How cool is that? The girls who were most impacted by the lack of options were the ones most involved in helping lead the way. They designed basically the whole outfit that they would want to wear - the uniform that they would want to wear when they compete.”Īnd after they showed the project to the committee members of the program, it was suggested they take the project wider in order to provide the same options for other girls around the world. “The girls were the center of the project. The project began by asking the girls what they would like and it all moved forward from there: So she asked for help from the University of Minnesota School of Design and was able to get a grant to make prototypes of a sport hijab. But, Fatimah didn’t have a solution to the clothing problem. They had space on the weekends to provide an area for the girls to play and noticed an immediate improvement in their confidence and willingness to join teams at school. We partnered with the University of Minnesota and when they did research they found that a lot of Muslim girls were not participating in sports because first there was no space and second there was a lack of clothes - barriers to clothes.” I started a girls program which provides a space for girls to be physically active, encouraging them to participate in sports in school and competing. ![]() “We never were planning to make a business out of this. Something similar happened with Fatimah Hussein, the Founder of Asiya: It’s cool to see that Cindy saw a problem and decided to make a solution. It made me realize it was not about the covering, but about the way the girls cover themselves and that there was a task for me as a designer to design something that would meet both parties: a solution as well as safe in regards to identity of these girls.” In court it was decided she could wear a turtle neck with swimming cap instead, since that would cover the same areas. “Back in 1999 I graduated a series of sport hijabs because a girl got expelled from gym class due to her supposedly unsafe hijab. Over email, the Founder and Creative Director of Capsters, Cindy van den Bremen, spoke with us about how Capsters, a company that “believes in the empowerment of women through sports,” has been making sport hijabs since way back in 1999! Here’s what Cindy had to say about creating a sport hijab: So we spoke to a few women from sportswear companies to see what their companies are doing for Muslim athletes and what they think about Nike’s decision to begin making sport hijabs. And while it’s pretty cool to see such a major company making options for a variety of athletes, many of you noted that Nike isn’t a perfect company and many female-owned companies have been doing similar work for years - decades even. We recently published an article highlighting Nike’s decision to make a sport hijab for Muslim athletes.
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