ABSTRACT
Islamic women’s sport appears to be a contradiction in terms – at least this is what many people in the West believe. The conviction that women in Islamic countries either cannot, will not or may not take part in sports (or at least in competitive and top-level sports) is partly borne out by the fact that Muslim immigrants in Germany, Britain and the USA scarcely take any active part in sport at all (De Knop et al. 1996; Pfister 2001). However, the congresses that have recently been held in Alexandria and in Tehran on the subject of women and sport go to show that Muslim women do take an interest in sport and are developing perspectives in sport.
