Starting in January Nike will sell their first high-performance hijab for professional athletes.
According to Nike, the hijab was designed with the help of a wide variety of athletes like weightlifter Amna Al Haddad, figure skater Zahra Lari, and boxer Zeina Nassar, among others. Included in the campaign is also U.S. fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad, who became the first Muslim American woman to compete in the Olympics in a hijab.
These athletes gave the brand feedback on how the hijab looked and performed, which led to the current, lightweight, polyester model, which comes in black and obsidian (currently) and will be available in white and gray in the future. It’s already available in select retailers in Europe, North Africa, North America, and the Middle East and will hit Nike.com in January.
There’s a long history of women not having the clothes they need to perform as athletes. In 1963 Merry Lepper became the first woman to finish an organized marathon in the United States and she did so in a blouse because athletic wear for women wasn’t available at the time. And Nike creating a hijab seems especially overdue. Last year Amaiya Zafar, a 16-year-old boxer, was disqualified at the Sugar Bert Boxing National Championships because her hijab, undershirt, and leggings were a violation of the dress code and apparently considered a “safety issue.” FIFA only allowed players to wear hijabs starting in 2014 and FIBA started allowing players to wear hijab during basketball games this year.
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