Female Muslim athletes to enjoy Muslim approved athletic sportswear after Nike announced it is launching the Nike Pro Hijab collection according to a report by Al alarabiya.
Nike on Tuesday launched their new Pro Hijab women-empowering initiative to further support Muslim women. The Nike Pro Hijab sportswear collection will be launched in spring 2018 in response to the increasing number of Muslim women embracing hijabs in sport.
What we heard was that women were looking for a lightweight and breathable solution that would stay in place without concern of shifting.’ A Nike spokesperson told Al Arabiya English
The Nike Pro Hijab is crafted in breathable, stretchy mesh fabric that’s been intensively tested by headscarf-wearing athletes, the brand says.
“The Nike Pro Hijab may have been more than a year in the making, but its impetus can be traced much further back, to an ongoing cultural shift that has seen more women than ever embracing sport,” a statement from Nike read.
“This movement first permeated international consciousness in 2012, when a hijabi runner took the global stage in London,” the statement added.
The runner Nike refers to is Saudi Arabia’s Sarah Attar, who competed 800m heats at the London Olympics. Emirati weightlifter Amna Al Haddad, who competed in the 2016 Olympics in Rio also donned a hijab.
“These new garments were again wear tested by elite Nike athletes, like the groundbreaking Emirati figure skater Zahra Lari and Nike+ Run Club Coach Manal Rostom. Everyday athletes from around the Middle East also assessed the hijabs,” Nike said in a statement.
Muslim hijabi athletes like Rostom, an Egyptian athlete who also runs the ‘Surviving Hijab’ Facebook group, believes the Nike Pro Hijab will encourage more inclusion for women in sports.
“For a brand like Nike to come out and say that these people exist and are inclusive of hijabis is a big deal. It not just about making a product available for Muslim and Arab women but it is also giving a chance to those women who are putting off the idea of wearing the veil completely in order to compete,” Rostom told Al Arabiya English.
