Leading a successful campaign to allow Muslim girls to wear sports hijab during PE lessons, a young Muslim student from Lancashire hopes her campaign will break barriers from more Muslims to join sport.

Umme Kalsoom, a 16-year-old student in Burnley, Lancashire, started the campaign after she felt “vulnerable” when expected to take off her hijab while playing sport at her school.

The young Muslim was struck by the attention her campaign achieved, said: “I did it to bring comfort to myself and the other girls. I didn’t know it would go this far.”

As the school has since changed its policy, Umme Kalsoom hopes her campaign will have a nationwide impact.

“(The hijab) makes me feel like myself,” she said. “Taking it off to do something I love didn’t enable me to feel my full self and I lacked confidence without it.”

Islam sees hijab as an obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying one’s affiliations. In general, Islam promotes good health and fitness and encourages both men and women to engage in physical activity to maintain healthy lifestyles.

Source: AboutIslam.net