Asma Elbadawi: Challenging inequalities and ending the hijab ban

Alasdair Hooper hosts this SportSpiel feature interview with basketball player, poet and campaigner Asma Elbadawi.

From a very young age, Asma has always been someone to highlight any inequalities she saw. As it says in her Twitter bio, reframing stereotypes is part of who she is.

To many people she is the person who successfully campaigned for the International Basketball Federation to allow the hijab.

As she says in this episode, she never wanted someone younger than her to say they couldn’t compete in the sport because they weren’t allowed to wear the hijab.

If you take it back even further, to when Asma was younger, she never saw women – specifically muslim women – in sport. The restrictions in place were a large part of the reason as to why that was the case.

It takes a lot for someone to recognise those issues in the first place but it also takes a lot for someone to make a move and change them.

That’s what Asma Elbadawi did – she fought for, and made, those changes.

Listen to the podcast episode below

All music in this episode is courtesy of Otis McDonald.

With thanks to The Mintridge Foundation for their help in securing this interview.