Islam’s View on Physical Activity and Sport: Egyptian Women Interpreting Islam

http://irs.sagepub.comSociology of Sport

International Review for the

DOI: 10.1177/10126902030381003 2003; 38; 45 International Review for the Sociology of Sport

Kristin Walseth and Kari Fasting Islam

Islams View on Physical Activity and Sport: Egyptian Women Interpreting

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ISLAMS VIEW ON PHYSICAL ACTIVITY ANDSPORTEgyptian Women Interpreting Islam

Kristin Walseth and Kari FastingThe Norwegian University of Sport and Physical Education, NorwayAbstract The questions asked in this study were: what kind of views do Egyptian women have onthe relationship between Islam and physical activity/sport, and what consequences do different inter-pretations of Islam have for Egyptian womens involvement in physical activity and sport? The datawere gathered during a four-month field-study in Egypt, and consist of 27 qualitative interviews inaddition to many hours of field-observation. The results show that the women in the study agreed thatIslam encourages sport participation for women. The women who most strongly emphasized the factthat they had to participate in some sporting activities were supporters of the fundamentalistic inter-pretation of Islam. Some Muslim women therefore find a non-secular relationship between sport andreligion. The study further revealed that the different interpretations of Islam had consequences forthe informants participation in sport. These were related to the use of the veil, gender segregation,the concept of excitement (non-sexual movements) and the power relationship between women and men. Most of these barriers seem to be products of Muslim societys view of women and theirsexuality. The data further support the opinion that power strategies get internalized into peoplesbodily practice.

Key words Egypt Islam religion sport women

Introduction

This article presents some results from a study done in Egypt. Its main purposewas to create more knowledge about the influence of Islam on some Muslimwomens participation in sport. In this introduction the relationship between sportand religion is first commented upon. Second, Islams influence on the Egyptiansociety is briefly mentioned. Third, to put the lives of the Muslim women par-ticipating in the study in their social-cultural context, a short description ofwomens situation in Egyptian society and in sport is presented.

Concerning the relationship between sport and religion, a popular point ofview has been that sport is a kind of religion (Sands, 1999), though there are also references to the place of religion inside sport (Coakley, 1994; Dunn andStevenson, 1998; Gidman and Turkingston, 1997; Hoffman, 1992; Macdonaldand Kirk, 1999; Stevenson, 1997). Hoffman (1999) exemplifies religions placeinside sport by looking at the relationship between modern evangelicalism and

INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE SOCIOLOGY OF SPORT 38/1(2003) 4560 45

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sport as a symbiotic partnership in which each party exploits the other for mate-rial gain. Examples of this are how players pray to God for support prior to sportcompetitions, and how some Christian churches build gymnasiums to attractyoung people to their church. There seems, however, to be little written about theplace of sport in religious texts. As Eisen (1999: 231) states: The fact that reli-gious philosophies and attitudes have something to do with how we view andadminister our leisure activities through history is one of the best-kept secrets ofmodern sport scholarship.

He says further that every religion creates certain priorities about the desir-ability or undesirability of various human endeavors in life. Where sport fits inthis list of priorities is based on a given religions perception of its importance inhuman existence. This article will look at the place of sport in Islam. A centralfocus will be on the different ways of interpreting Islam.

Hjrpe (1983) has divided Islam into four different ideological tendenciesdepending on how Muslims interpret Islam, and dependent on what function religion should have in the society (Figure 1).

Secularism and fundamentalism are two opposite views on the function of reli-gion. Secularism looks at religion as a private matter while fundamentalists areof the opinion that Islam is a way of governing society. An example of funda-mentalism is the Muslim brotherhood that wants Egypt to become an Islamicstate. Traditionalists and modernists represent different views on how Islamshould be interpreted. Traditionalists want to look at tradition and how Islamicscholars have interpreted Islam during past centuries. Modernists believe thatsocietys laws should be inspired by Islamic values and principles. Islamic prin-ciples, not the traditional detailed rules, should guide society. This often impliesradical reinterpretation of Islam.

Islams influence on Egyptian society is less than in Islamic states like Iranand Saudi Arabia because Egypt is a secular state where Islam is under theadministration of the state. This is in contrast to Islamic states where the states

46 INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE SOCIOLOGY OF SPORT 38(1)

Secularism

ModernismFundamentalism

Narrowed concept of religion

Traditionalism

A wider (more total) concept of religion Islam as political ideology

Figure 1 Different Interpretations of Islam



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are governed by the Islamic law, Sharia (Vogt, 1995). The Egyptian nationallaw is built on Sharia, but Egypt has for a long time practised a solution betweenwhere Sharia is used as fundamental in family law, and where it is less used ineconomic situations (Hjrpe, 1983).

It is still men who control and dominate the economic and political situationin Egypt. Even though women got universal suffrage in 1956, there are fewwomen in leading political positions. According to the United Nations StatisticsDivision, 46 percent of women aged 1524 are illiterate, compared to 29 percentof men in the same age group (Internet, 2002). In addition, women do not havethe same rights as men. The Islamic law Sharia states that the testimony from oneman is of equal rank to the testimonies of two women. This is true for business,marriage and in court (De Knop et al., 1996). Egypt has also major reservationsto the UN conventions relative to abolishing all kinds of discrimination againstwomen (Grannes, 1993).

Feminism in Egypt is complex and includes secular, Muslim and Islamicfeminists. What they have in common is the struggle for Muslim womens rights.Simplified one can say that secular feminists have a secular interpretation ofIslam as the point of departure. Muslim feminists have a modern interpretation ofIslam as the point of departure and Islamic feminists have a fundamentalisticinterpretation of Islam as a point of departure.

Muslim and Islamic feminists differ from western feminists and other secu-lar feminists because they are looking to Islam for arguments and answers. Theybelieve that women and men are of equal worth and that Islam should definewomens position and role in society (Svensson, 1996).

The Supreme Council of Youth and Sport is the highest organ of sport and isa political organ where President Mubarak has nominated the members. This isset out in Figure 2.

WALSETH AND FASTING: ISLAMS VIEW ON PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND SPORT 47

Figure 2 The organization of sport in Egypt

The Supreme Council of youth and sport

The President of the executive councilof youth and sport The NOC

The Federations

Sport for alle.g. aerobics, no age limits,sport members in the board

Youthe.g. camping, seminars,Youth centers, politicalmembers in the board

SportsNational, International

teams, Club teams, talentcenters, responsible for

elections in clubs



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Competitive sport is mainly practised through sport clubs, which are expen-sive and therefore mainly for the middle and upper classes. Due to the secularorganization of sport in Egypt, competitive sport is not gender segregated so mencan be present when women play, such as during a basketball game. Egypt doessend female athletes to the Olympic Games, while they do not participate in the Solidarity Games, which are games for Muslims who believe that female participation in Olympic Games is not in accordance with Islam. Egypt doeshowever have committees for sport for all. Through sport for all it is possiblefor women to do aerobics in gender-segregated arenas.

There exist no statistics of womens participation in sport in Egypt. The information we have indicates that the pattern is the same as in most countries, i.e.that more men than women participate in sport. There are in Egypt today somewomen who are central in the work and development of womens sport in Egypt.Dr Nabilah Abdelrahman must be mentioned since, at the time of the fieldwork,she was the only woman represented in the Supreme Council of Youth and Sport.She organizes international scientific conferences on women and sport, and hasestablished the Arab Women and Sport Association. In relation to the differentinterpretations of Islam, Abdelrahman can be seen as working for womens rightto do sport inside the context of Islam (Muslim feminism). In this way she can beseen as belonging to those seeking a modernistic interpretation of Islam.

Another central woman in Egyptian Sport is Sahar El-Hawary. She was thefirst woman from the continent of Africa selected to the FIFA committee(Hargreaves, 2000) and has, on her own, financed and started a football leaguefor women in Egypt. Mrs El-Hawary represents a secular interpretation of Islam.Despite their different interpretations of Islam, Abdelrahman and El-Hawaryhave both been successful in their work for female sport participation in Egypt.

Previous Studies

Previous research in this area can be sorted into two different categories. First, literature about Islams positive attitude toward sport (Abdelrahman, 1992;Alogleh, 1986; Daiman, 1995; Gellaish, 1981; Ibrahim, 1982; Sfeir, 1985;Walseth, 1998; Zaman, 1997): these articles show how the Prophet Muhammadencouraged Muslims to participate in sport. This was exemplified by the hadith1where the Prophet encouraged his wife to run. Despite the fact that Islam encour-ages Muslims to practise sport, there are low participation rates among Muslimwomen in Muslim countries. This is exemplified in the research in the second category. These studies focus on womens sport participation in Muslim coun-tries (Balboul, 2000; Brooks, 1996; Hargreaves, 2000; Navabinejad, 1994; Sfeir,1985) and explains why Muslim women are less involved in sport than Muslimmen.

These studies also reveal that women in these countries do participate insport under different conditions than women in the West (Abdelrahman, 1992;Balboul, 2000; Brooks, 1996; Hargreaves, 2000; Navabinejad, 1994; Pfister,2000; Sfeir, 1985). For example, in some countries men must be excluded fromthe sports arena if women are going to compete in sports clothes where they show




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part of their skin. This is illustrated at the Solidarity Games arranged by Iran.These are games where only women are allowed to be inside the sports facilitieswhen women are competing (Brooks, 1996; Pfister, 2000).

A general feature of most of this research on Islam and sport is that theresearchers do not discuss in depth what kinds of cultural and religious limita-tions these women face and why these limitations exist. The purpose of this studywas therefore to seek an understanding of the religious influence on Muslimwomens sport participation. The questions raised in this article are therefore:

What views do Egyptian women have on the relationship between Islam andphysical activity/sport?

What consequences do different interpretations of Islam have for Egyptianwomens involvement in physical activity and sport?

Methodology

The findings, about Islams influence on womens involvement in sport, are notmeant to be representative for all Muslim countries. One of the reasons for choos-ing Egypt is that it is a complex country in which one can find different attitudesabout the issues. In addition Egypt is often seen, intellectually and culturally, asa mirror of the Arab world in the modern age. This is especially the case whenanalysing the Arabic worlds view of women (Ahmed, 1992).

The data were gathered during a four-month field-study in Alexandria,Egypt, in 1997, and consist of 27 qualitative interviews and many hours of field-observations.2 The interviews took place at the university campus. The interviewswere tape-recorded and transcribed.

Interview ObjectsThis study is based on interviews with Egyptian female university studentsbetween 18 and 26 years of age, representing five different faculties. None weremarried but some were engaged. It was our desire to sample both physically in-active and physically active women. It was further our aim that the female students should represent different socioeconomic backgrounds, and be able tocommunicate in English. Some of the informants participated in competitivesports such as basketball and handball. Others participated in gender-segregatedsports like aerobics in sports clubs or weight training at home. Some of theseinterviewees had also participated in competitive gender-segregated sport at primary school.

With reference to the main question asked in the study it was also importantto get informants with different interpretations of Islam. Literature read previousto the field-study suggested that a particular kind of veil often was used as a signof a fundamentalistic interpretation of Islam (Christiansen and Rasmussen,1994). This assumption was confirmed during the first part of the field-study.Different types of veils therefore became a criterion when searching for furtherinformants. Among the 27 informants 3 used nikab, 7 krimar, 9 hijab and 8 didnot use any veil (Figure 3).




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In the Islamic literature the different types of Muslim veils have many dif-ferent names and women are not always consistent in the use of these names. Inthis article the different veils are given the names which most of the informantsused. The participants were accordingly divided into four groups, based on howmuch the veil covered the body: The first group consists of those women who didnot use a veil. The second is the hijab-veil, a veil which covers only the hair. Thethird group is for those women who used a krimar-veil, which in addition to covering the hair also covers the breasts. This veil is often referred to as theIslamic uniform, and is used by many women who support more fundamental-istic interpretations of Islam (Christiansen and Rasmussen, 1994). The last cate-gory is nikab-veil, which means face veil. The face veil is used in addition to the krimar, and sometimes is also used with gloves. The informants were divided into different groups because the different kinds of veils seemed to be asign of different interpretations of Islam. These were found to have consequencesfor the participants attitudes to sport.

Accessing the Field

The researcher was warmly welcomed at the university, but this friendliness created some challenges in the selection of the informants. The deans and someof the teachers wanted to help finding suitable informants, with the result thatthe informants was introduced primarily to potential informants with hijab.These represented the official interpretation of Islam, i.e. that religion is a per-sonal belief in a secular society. At some faculties the interviewer was set up withguides who would help her with practical problems at the university. This wasoften a woman who used hijab, or who did not use a veil at all. It turned out thatthose female students who did not use veil seldom mixed with women who usednikab. The interviewer was therefore met with scepticism from women who usednikab and krimar since she was both from the West and was accompanied bywomen who did not use a veil. When the researcher first made contact with


Figure 3 Different veils

Hijab Krimar Nikab



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women who used krimar or nikab, the snowball sampling technique was used.This made it easier to recruit informants from these other groups.

InsiderOutsider

How native a researcher should go is a common problem for people doing field-work. We have, for example, had questions from fellow researchers whether thisproject would have been better if the interviewer had tried to convert to Islam.This question was also important for the informants. It is illustrated by the following example from the field-notes:

I went to the Y faculty and met X. It is difficult because she always tries to convert me. Shesays that she does it because she likes me so much, and because God prefers those whoimmediately believe in Islam. She is probably a little bit concerned that I will not end up inheaven.

There are also some categoricalists who believe that one can only do researchon individuals who belong to the same group/category as oneself (Ball, 1990).Examples of such categories are: gender, sexual orientation, and in this case religion. We do not agree that the researcher has to be a Muslim to conduct inter-views with Muslims. On the contrary, it might be that the researcher as a non-Muslim can raise questions about the practice of the religion, which could neverhad been done if she had been a Muslim. The experience from the field-study wasthat many Muslims seem to have learned that they should not query or be criticalto aspects of the Koran or the hadiths. As a Muslim one should obey and notreflect upon these issues. A Muslim, for example, would rarely question whethera saying from the Koran is fair, because God is fair. If the interviewer had becomea Muslim, the informants would perhaps not have accepted her querying differ-ent aspects of Islam. By not becoming a Muslim, she had this option. The infor-mants looked upon her as ignorant, and it was therefore important for them togive her information and answer her questions, because this could lead her torealize that Islam was the true religion. In addition to the factors mentioned here,we believe there is a limit of how native one should go. One finds support forthis from Bernard (1995), who says that participant observation means that youtry to get experiences from the lives of your informants to as great a degree as possible. Participant observation does not mean that one should be a fullyaccepted member of a culture which is not ones own.

Analysing the Data

The analysis started in the field, and the process of collecting and analysing thedata was concurrent. The goal was to create an understanding of the meaningIslam has for Egyptian womens sport participation, by organizing the data intocategories. The explanations and the discussion of the results of the study are ofan ideographic form. The study therefore did not have the goal of explaining themeaning Islam has for Muslim womens sport participation in general, because itfocused on one specific case/place (Bernard, 1995).




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Trustworthiness

It was important to think about the credibility (Marshall and Rossman, 1989) ofthe data during the data collection process. Trust is a key word in this connection.It is believed that a confident atmosphere was created partly due to the motiva-tion that was given for carrying out the interviews. The researcher presented theproject by saying that in Norway there were some Muslim immigrants, and thatwe had some problems in relation to physical education in the school systemsbecause Norway did not have single-sex classes. The researcher explained that itwas important to learn more about Islam and what Islam says about physicalactivity and sport. This may have given them a feeling that they were teaching theresearcher, and that she was there because she wanted to learn. We believe thiswas important because many informants dislike the West because the Westalways wanted us to follow them. This was explained by saying that the Westalways tried to preach to them what was right and wrong.

Ones credibility is also dependent on how long one has been in the field. Forpractical reasons a four-month period was chosen. It seemed to be enough timefor saturation to occur, the point in time where one has collected enough data(Henderson, 1991). The language might be a potential source of error during thisfield-study. Undoubtedly, more precise, richer and nuanced information wouldhave been available if the interviews had been carried through in Arabic, theinformants own language. The informants English knowledge varied consider-ably. Using a lot of time, repeating and explaining if something was unclear, usually reduced the language problem. Economic limits did not give us the optionto use authorized and professional interpreters. We were also critical of the use ofan interpreter because this might destroy some of the confidence and the close-ness which is so important in an interview situation. An interpreter, who was oneof the employees at the university, was used for one interview. This was not asuccess. The interpreter became very busy giving the correct answers to thequestions, as if there existed one right or correct opinion of the question askedor subject discussed.

Results

Islam Encourages Sport Participation

With reference to the Koran and different hadiths the women in the study statedthat Islam is positive towards physical activity and sport. They agreed that thereasons for this were the health, recreational, and war aspects of sport.

Many of the women made references to the health concerns of Islam. Oneinformant stated for example: Islam says that all Muslims have to do somethingfor their bodies, to take care of them. One way to do this would be through sport(hijab). There is also, according to the Muslim female researcher, Abdelrahman(1992: 3), a hadith saying: Your body has certain needs that you have to fulfil.Interview with an imam in Norway confirmed that this hadith made reference tothe body and that physical activity, because of this, was important.

Concerning the recreational aspect of sport, the informants made special




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reference to two strong hadiths which demonstrate the importance of sport andphysical activity. One of these hadiths, which is referred to by the Muslim author(Qaradawy, 1992), tells about Handala and the first caliph, Abu Bakr, who cameto the Prophet because they felt so hypocritical. They told Muhammad that theyacted differently when they were at home with their families than when they werewith Muhammad. When they were at home they played with their children, andwere not as concerned with serious questions as when they were with the Prophet.The Prophet then said: There is a time for this and a time for that (Qaradawy,1992: 291). The informants, the imam and al-Qaradawy (1992) each interpretedthis hadith to mean that the lives of Muslims should consist of both seriousnessand play, and that we all ought to have some leisure time. The Islamic literaturealso tells us that the second caliph, Umar Ibn Khattab, stated: Teach yourchildren swimming and archery, and tell them to jump on the horses back(Qaradawy, 1992: 296).

There is, in addition, according to the informants and al-Qaradawy (1992),another strong hadith that tells the story of the Prophet who raced with his wifeAisha in order to please her, to enjoy himself and to set an example for his com-panions. Aisha said:

I raced with the Prophet and beat him in the race. Later, when I had put on some weight, weraced again and he won. Then he said: this cancels that [draw], referring to the previousoccasion. (Qaradawy, 1992: 293)

This last example seems to be especially important for Muslim women becauseit explicitly shows that Muhammad requested women to run.

As mentioned by the informants, physical activity and sport can also be seenas important because Islam emphasizes the importance of being in good physicalcondition in case of war. Some informants made reference to one sura (verse) inthe Koran, which says: Against them make ready all your strength to the utmostof your power (Koran, 1998: sura 8: 62, translated by Abdelrahman, 1992). Thissura in the Koran is often referred to in relation to Allahs wishes for havingstrong Muslims. There is also according to the informants, Abdelrahman (1992:9) and al-Gellaish (1981: 37), a hadith where the Prophet Muhammad says: Astrong Muslim is better and more beloved by God than a weak one, but both aregood.

All the informants believed that Islam encourages women to participate insport. Even though these women participated in different aspects of sport, theydid not have different views about sport as a positive activity for them.

The analysis of the interview transcripts revealed a verbal nuance betweenthe women who used nikab and krimar, and the other women, i.e. those who usedhijab or didnt use the veil at all. Some of the informants who wear nikab or krimar emphasized that they were instructed by God to do sport:

Islam tells us that we have got the body as a gift from God, and that we should take care ofit. God tells us to do a lot of things. How much we do of these things, is what decides ourplace in heaven. (nikab)

I do more than God instructs us to, because I want to satisfy Him. After you die, you go to




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heaven or hell. There are different levels in heaven. The highest level is only for Muhammadand his warriors, or others who did much to satisfy him. You have to do sport. I play soccerwith my brothers in the garden after it gets dark. (nikab)

This woman meant that God ordered her to participate in physical activity/sport,and that she plays soccer with her brothers because of this.

Different Interpretations of Islam: Consequences for the InformantsParticipation in Sport

Due to the informants positive attitudes toward physical activity and sport, onemight believe that they all were physically active. The results following showhowever that this is not the fact. The interviews uncovered other interpretationsof Islam that seem to function as practical barriers to womens sport participation.These were related to the use of the veil, gender segregation, the concept ofexcitement (non-sexual movements) and the power relationship betweenwomen and men.

All the informants noted that Islam preferred that Muslim women wear theveil. Some of the informants thought this was a barrier for their sport participa-tion, because they used a kind of veil (krimar and nikab) which in addition to covering the hair also covered the chest. It is, according to these informants,almost impossible to do sport with this veil on. The consequences are that thesewomen have to do physical activities at home, or in sex-segregated training studios.

The informants with krimar and nikab also thought that the concept ofexcitement (that women should not do sport movements which could be sexu-ally exciting for men who watched them) made sport participation difficult.Women can, according to the informants in this study, create fitna (which meanschaos or temptation) by participating in sport activities where men can watchthem. Interviews with religious authorities (ulamas) state that women can prac-tise sport if they cover their bodies, and if the sport movements are not excitingfor the men who watch them (Abdelrahman, 1992). The women in our studyagreed with the religious authorities, but their opinion of what exciting move-ments were differed considerably. The informants who use hijab thought thatmost sports, except activities with music (aerobics, gymnastics, dancing), wereOK to perform in front of men if the womans body was covered. One of theinformants said for example:

Basketball is OK in front of men, if you are covered, but in aerobics you have to be segregated from men. Aerobics demands that you have to lift your legs high and so that canbe exciting for men. (hijab)

Those informants using nikab and krimar differed from the other women intheir views on excitement. They looked upon all kinds of physical activities andsport as dangerous because they believed these sport movements could provokeexcitement among the men who looked at them. As one of the women said:Running is not OK in front of men. You should only run if there is a danger.Your body shakes when you run, and men can be attracted (krimar). In addition




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to the commands relative to using the veil and the concept about excitement, thesame informants thought that participation in sport became almost impossiblebecause of the way sport is organized in Egypt today. Since there are very fewsex-segregated sport arenas, these women cannot participate in competitivesport. But it was not the requirements about veil and sex segregation that limitedtheir sport participation. It is, according to these women, Egyptian societys secular organization of sport that sets the limits. Islam is only a barrier toEgyptian womens possibility to play sport and participate in competitionsbecause Egypt, as a secular society, has not adjusted sport participation for thosewho have a wider or more total concept of religion and who look at Islam as apolitical ideology.3

The informants in the hijab and no-veil categories may participate in sportcompetitions because they interpret Islam in such a way that neither the veil, sexsegregation nor the concept of excitement raised any practical barriers to theirsport participation. The informants in the hijab and no-veil category howeverencountered other barriers, such as the power relationships between men andwomen, which they experienced differently from the informants in the krimar andnikab category.

If one examines the Koran, the main source of Islamic thinking and practices,one will find a few verses that treat the gender issue. These verses have beeninterpreted in different ways, depending on the writer. There is for example agreat difference in interpretations done by fundamentalists and by modernists.There is also an ongoing debate among Muslims, especially Muslim feminists,about gender issues in Islam (Ahmed, 1992; Mernissi, 1991; Roded, 1999). Basedon different sura, among others, 33: 35 and 3: 193 in the Koran, Muslim feministsbelieve that Islam has an egalitarian message: I waste not the labor of any thatlabors among you, be you male or female the one of you is as the other (sura3: 193). Despite the apparent message of sura 3: 193 in the Koran (1998), whichprescribes gender equality, there is today a dominant interpretation of Islam in theEgyptian Muslim society saying that men should have a dominating position overwomen. This interpretation is mainly based on the following verse in the Koran:

Men are the managers of the affairs of women for that God has preferred in bounty one ofthem over another, and for that they have expended of their property. Righteous women aretherefore obedient, guarding the secret for Gods guarding. And those you fear may be rebellious admonish; banish them to their couches, and beat them. If they then obey you,look not for any way against them; God is All-high, All-great. (sura 4: 38)

Based on these verses, a central question was whether Islam legitimates menscontrol over women. Most of the informants who use hijab or no-veil answeredyes to this question. Example:

If we disagree we should discuss it first, but in the end it is up to the husband to decidewhether his wife can participate in sport or not. Islam says that the man should decide in thisway. (no-veil)

The informants in the nikab and krimar category were more negative about menscontrol over women. One of the informants who used nikab answered:




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We should not obey anyone else than God. We should look to Islam for answers. If some-one [a man] says that women should not do sport, it is because he does not know Islam. Iam playing sport to get a higher position in heaven.

In this way the informants in the nikab/krimar category had something in com-mon with Muslim feminists in general who believe that women and men are ofequal worth, and that Islam, and not men, should define womens position androle in society (Svensson, 1996).

The results show that the informants who look at Islam as a political ideo-logy, and who hoped that Egypt would become an Islamic state, were the oneswho interpreted Islam to not advocate mens control over women. This was sur-prising and a paradox to us because it seems that the implementation of Shariaoften leads to an increased control over women (Ahmed, 1992; Hargreaves,2000). These informants do however believe that an Islamic state based on theright interpretation of Islam (not patriarchy) would increase their possibility ofparticipating in sport.

Discussion

The study revealed a common opinion about Islams positive attitude to sport. Itfurther found that the informants who most strongly emphasized the fact that theyhad to participate in some sporting activities, were those who looked at Islam asa political ideology. While the informants who did not use veil or who used hijabsaid that God encouraged them to do sport, the informants with nikab or krimarveils emphasized that they had to participate in exercise and sport.

Concerning the relationship between sport and religion today, both Guttmann(1985) and Lammer (1987) make the comparison to the ancient Olympic Games.They agree that the ancient Olympic Games were holy games in which the athletes participated in order to worship the gods. Lammer (1987) says furtherthat there is an important difference between the ancient and the modern OlympicGames because the first ones were a part of a religious festival, while the modernGames have no religious connection. Concerning the role of sport in societytoday, Guttmann (1985: 306) states that:

Modern sports are activities partly pursued for their own sake, partly for other ends whichare equally secular. We do not run in order that the earth be more fertile. We till the earth,or work in our factories and offices, so that we can have time to play.

Guttmann (1985) emphasizes in this way his view of sport as a totally secularphenomenon. There is, according to him, nothing today which tells us that some-one is doing sport to satisfy God. In light of the results that have been presentedhere, it is obvious that we have to dissent from his opinion. It is easy to see theparallel between the ancient Olympic Games and the opinions of the Egyptianwomen participating in the study. The results indicate that some Egyptianwomen, particularly those who interpret Islam to be a political ideology, partici-pate in physical activities and sport because they want to please God. For thesewomen it is important to do as God wants them to do because it increases their




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chance of getting a high place in heaven. It therefore seems that physical activityand sport has a place in Islam and that some Muslims find a non-secular rela-tionship between sport and religion. This means that people may participate inphysical activities and sport to get closer to God, as opposed to the better-knownphenomenon that athletes use religion or God to perform better in sports.

Through this study some barriers to Egyptian womens participation in physical activities and sport have also been revealed. The results show that dif-ferent interpretations of Islam produce different barriers. The informants who donot use veil or use hijab point to patriarchy, i.e. that the men in their familiesdecide whether they are allowed to do sport. This is a primary barrier.

Women with krimar and nikab point to the Egyptian societys secular orga-nization of sport as a major barrier for their participation in competitive sport,because Egypt does not practise gender segregation in the sport arena.

Most of the barriers the informants referred to seemed to be directly or indirectly related to Islams view of women and their sexuality. According toIslam, women have a strong sexuality. Compared to men, women are more oftenviewed as less moral, because they are believed to have less control over theirsexuality (Astad, 1993). She is therefore seen as a seducing being, at the sametime she is easy to tempt. Due to this idea women can easily create fitna (chaosor temptation) in the society. Participating in sport with men would be an example.

Since women are seen as less moral than men, they are at the same time seenas less capable of making decisions, including deciding about their own leisureactivities. In this way the control of women, including their own body move-ments, is legitimized by saying that women have a tendency to be immoral(Astad, 1993). According to Dahl (1992), the social order, i.e. the hierarchy ofgender, is a product of religious and cultural ideas about sexuality, and an opinion of how sexuality best can be organized and controlled.

The body can in this way be seen as a prolongation of womens sexuality. Torun or scream is a body language reserved for men in a Muslim society (Astad,1993). In the western world competitive sport has for a long time been lookedupon as a hegemonic masculine activity dominated by masculine values(Messner, 1994). It is the same phenomenon that seems to occur in this studyfrom Egypt.

The barriers the informants met, in regard to which kind of movements theycould perform in front of men, can be interpreted as Egyptian societys attemptto control womens self-determination, opportunities and power. The data there-fore support the opinion that power strategies get internalized into peoples physi-cal activities.

The debate about Egyptian womens sport participation is controversial.There were, for example, disagreements among the informants in relation towhere (gender-segregated or not), when (do men decide when they can do sport)and in which way (non-exciting movements) Egyptian women can participate insport. The multiple ways Egyptian women do participate in sport has shown to beinfluenced, directly or indirectly, by different interpretations of Islam. In con-clusion it therefore can be stated that Islam influences Egyptian womens sportparticipation.




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Notes

We would like to thank the deans of the different faculties involved in this project for their hospital-ity. We also want to thank the informants who have participated in this study.

1. The hadith collections are the Islamic stories about what Prophet Mohammad should have said,done or accepted (Oppsal, 1994). The hadiths, which we make reference to here, are alsoreferred to by the informants. We have however presented these hadiths as quotes from differ-ent Islamic literature so that they are presented as precisely as possible.

2. Since the informants represent a culture very different from the researchers, it was found neces-sary to live in that culture for a certain amount of time. This was the main reason for gatheringdata through staying in the field where the informants lived. The field-observations and thequalitative interviews were carried through by the first author as a part of her masters study(Walseth, 1998). Qualitative interviews were used for different reasons. First of all, because ofthe possibility of the interviewer to go into more depth than would have been possible by forexample using a questionnaire (Denzin and Lincoln, 2000). Secondly this was looked upon asparticularly important because the data gathering could not take place in the informants ownlanguage. The possibility of asking questions, using body language and asking the same ques-tions in another way were therefore also major factors in the decision taken to use qualitativeinterviews. In carrying through the interviews a semi-structured interview guideline was used.This implied that all informants were asked the same questions as starting points for the differ-ent themes that were discussed during the interviews.

3. In Iran, the use of veil and the request that women should not move excitingly do not raise the same barriers to womens sport participation because Iran, as an Islamic state, has sex-segregated training places (Navabinejad, 1994).

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Kristin Walseth is research fellow at the Norwegian University of Sport andPhysical Education. Her current research is on immigrants, sport and gender inNorway.

Kari Fasting is professor and a former rector of the Norwegian University ofSport and Physical Education, where she teaches sociology of sport and researchmethods. Her area of research is sociological and socialpsychological aspects ofgender and sport. Kari Fasting is past president of The International Sociology ofSport Association.

Address: Norwegian University of Sport and Physical Education, Postbox 4014Ullevl stadion, N-0806 Oslo, Norway. Email: [email protected], [email protected]




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Islam’s View on Physical Activity and Sport: Egyptian Women Interpreting Islam