Fellow’s Profile
Fellow’s Profile
Muslim women and Football
Examining the barriers preventing Muslim women and girls from accessing football and how to make football equitable for them
2023
South East
I am a director of the Three Hijabis, an award-winning, viral, campaigning activist platform working to make football and sport anti-racist and free from violence against women and girls. The Three Hijabis specialise in tackling gendered Islamophobia, develop and carry out anti-oppression training for leaders and work on carrying out systemic change in organisations.
My Fellowship is focused on examining the barriers preventing Muslim women and girls from accessing football and how to make football equitable for Muslim women and girls. I will be connecting the dots between the work being done in this area in the UK at all levels of the game, and the work being done in France, as the country prepares to host the Olympic Games in 2024. I'm also focusing on Pakistan (where my heritage is from and which has some of the highest levels of recorded violence against women and girls in the world), where there is a thriving women and girls' football sector, attracting players from the diaspora across the world.
Shaista Aziz will present her research from Pakistan to UK Sport staff in an online forum early next year. She has also been invited by the Football Association, in her role as co-Director of the Three Hijabis, to join their Faith and Football Working Group.
By Shaista Aziz, 2024
Shaista appeared on BBC Woman’s Hour discussing the women’s World Cup and Nouhalia Benzina, the first ever hijabi wearing player in the women's football World Cup. Shaista mentions her Churchill Fellowship - learning how to make football more equitable for Muslim women and girls. She describes how she will travel to France to learn more from muslim girls and women who are being prevented from playing football and Pakistan which has a thriving women and girls' football sector despite the high levels of violence. Shaista says that the main issue is not Islam or the hijab but the systemic oppression and need for the system to change to ensure equity for all. Listen on bbc.co.uk. Shaista also wrote a piece on decolonisation in football for CNN.
By Shaista Aziz, 2023
All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.
Shaista Aziz will present her research from Pakistan to UK Sport staff in an online forum early next year. She has also been invited by the Football Association, in her role as co-Director of the Three Hijabis, to join their Faith and Football Working Group.
By Shaista Aziz, 2024
Shaista appeared on BBC Woman’s Hour discussing the women’s World Cup and Nouhalia Benzina, the first ever hijabi wearing player in the women's football World Cup. Shaista mentions her Churchill Fellowship - learning how to make football more equitable for Muslim women and girls. She describes how she will travel to France to learn more from muslim girls and women who are being prevented from playing football and Pakistan which has a thriving women and girls' football sector despite the high levels of violence. Shaista says that the main issue is not Islam or the hijab but the systemic oppression and need for the system to change to ensure equity for all. Listen on bbc.co.uk. Shaista also wrote a piece on decolonisation in football for CNN.
By Shaista Aziz, 2023
All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.
