Welcome to Big Sister

Big Sister (www.bigsister.org.uk) has been launched by a British Muslim woman, Shaista Gohir MBE, to challenge stereotypes and raise the aspirations of Muslim girls and women around the world. The website challenges the treatment of women through satirical cartoons and highlights stories of Muslim women in diverse fields including business, politics, sports, human rights, arts & culture, from past to present.

E: contact@bigsister.org.uk

T: +44 121 236 9000

M: +44 7802 225989

You can check out the following link for their section about Muslim sportswomen.

http://www.bigsister.org.uk/sportybigsister.php

Nawal El Moutawakel on Education of Women and Girls

LAURA WALDEN / Sports Features Communications

TAMPA/NEW YORK, Sept 22: IOC Executive Board member Nawal El Moutawakel was speaking out at the UN Millennium Development Goals Summit being held in New York to support of education for women.

The Olympian is also a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Goodwill Ambassador and has dealt with many of her own trying experiences growing up in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s in Morocco. El Moutawakel is also the first Muslim woman to win an Olympic gold medal on the 400 meter hurdles and has even served her country as Minister of Sports.

Speaking to the UN News center today she said: “I personally lived these difficulties… access to education, women’s empowerment, environmental protection, improvement in health. I had experiences in all these fields linked to my personal life, to that of my country.”

“An educated woman is an educated family and an educated country since women represent more than half the population in most countries today. When women have no access to education all other (MDG) efforts are doomed to fail.

“Access to primary education is vital since it has a run-on impact on all other MDGs, it even determines the success and survival of some, like women’s empowerment.”

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon held a roundtable discussion with other IOC Members Prince Albert of Monaco and Hungarian President Pal Schmitt to discuss the important value of sport working closely with the UN to strive to attain the MDG goals for 2015.

Source: http://www.sportsfeatures.com/olympicsnews/story/47463/iocun-education-for-women-and-girls-crucial-for-mdg-efforts

Aylin Dasdelen

Aylin Dasdelen of Turkey competes in the women's 53kg weightlifting snatch competition at the World Weightlifting Championships in Antalya, southern Turkey September 18, 2010.

Source: Reuters

A Culture of Trust: Engaging Muslim Women in Community Sport Organizations

Authors: Hazel Maxwell^a; Tracy Taylor^a

^{Published in: European Sport Management Quarterly, Volume 10, Issue 4 September 2010 , pages 465 - 483}

Abstract This article examines the impetus for, and process of, engaging Muslim women in community sport. The research focuses on how and why a community sport organization, located in a large Australian city, embraced cultural change and developed a more inclusive community sport environment through social capital facilitation. The operation of the three types of social capital (bonding, bridging and linking) is considered alongside social capital attributes (networks, trust, reciprocity, volunteering and community building). The theoretical framework employed is derived from Lin's framework of social capital. The research findings are analysed through an examination of the stages of investment, development, mobilization and reproduction of social capital. This research illustrates the potential for the development of trust, cooperation and community networks, leading to cultural awareness, and changes to the cultural profile and practices of community sport organizations. Source: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a926590745~tab=content~order=page