‘It was amazing to find the sisterhood’
Campaign aims to help make all Ontarians, especially women, feel welcome in sports
A talented and passionate rugby player, Amreen Kadwa was named most valuable player of her team at Victoria Park Collegiate Institute and the Yeomen Lions Rugby Football Club.
“You don’t get that kind of adrenalin and boost of energy through anything else,” Kadwa says of the sport.
As much as she loved rugby, she admitted to having felt unwelcome in sports in the past, due to her religion, culture and appearance — “especially in my youth when I was navigating who I was as an individual,” said Kadwa, who emigrated from India to Scarborough with her family at age 10, identifies as South Asian Muslim and wears a hijab.
Although her rugby teammates were open-minded and understanding, she said she would still sometimes remove her hijab to fit in more during practices.
Also, she said, “Alcohol is a big part of rugby culture, so we would go to bars after almost every game. It just wasn’t my scene, so I would feel very unwelcome there.”
Four years ago, Kadwa founded the Hijabi Ballers, a basketball league for women who wear the hijab — of which the now 26-yearold is executive director — the goal of which is to increase Muslim women’s participation in city sports programs while recognizing and celebrating the athleticism of Muslim girls and women.
Kadwa wasn’t alone in her feelings of exclusion. An Ontario Sport Network survey of Ontarians aged 13 to 64 showed nearly a quarter of those polled didn’t feel welcome in sports; three-quarters believed accessibility to be one of the biggest barriers to participation in sports and just over a quarter said body image issues were barriers.
To encourage all Ontarians to see themselves in sports, enrol in leagues and programs, and raise awareness of the benefits of sports and recreation, the network has launched a provincewide awareness campaign; the Hijabi Ballers is one of the groups spotlighted.
“This is Your Sport” also brings attention to the barriers Ontarians say are preventing their participation, including pandemic-related league closures, accessibility issues (proximity, cost, bullying and lack of being welcomed) and safety concerns around COVID-19, which caused a decline in enrolment rates across the province.
The Hijabi Ballers addresses two of these barriers. The first is finance: most of its programming takes place in Toronto, said Kadwa, although some happens in the GTA or online.
The non-profit organization also addresses inclusion.
Scarborough-born Mehnaaz Bholat, who identifies as South Asian, avoided participating in sports for many years because there were no programs for women who wear hijabs. She joined the Hijabi Ballers to stay active after having children.
“It was amazing to find the sisterhood,” Bholat, 31, said.
“We need to have sport recognized as a place where everyone is welcome,” said Ontario Sport Network board chair Michele O’Keefe.
“Sport needs to be seen as a safe place where everyone gets to play and stay active.”
This is important, she added, because “we’ve witnessed the toll of inactivity on not only ourselves, but our children, our friends and our community.” That toll includes health problems, both physical and mental, less opportunity to build confidence and develop leadership and teamwork skills.
The network is working to provide the resources and the safe and inclusive spaces Ontarians need today, O’Keefe said.
Plans include building strategic partnerships and organizing a regular speaker series, holding workshops for sports administrators and developing an online hub with a curated collection of sports policy resources.
Another study, the Canadian Women & Sport’s Rally Report: Encouraging Action to Improve Sport for Women and Girls found participation levels for Canadian girls to be much lower than boys, with one in three girls dropping out of sports by their late teens, compared to a one in 10 dropout rate for teenage boys.
Sport participation rates for Canadian girls decline steadily from childhood to adolescence, with as many as 62 per cent of girls left out of sports altogether.
In many societies and cultures, girls and women are at a disadvantage in almost every single aspect of their lives, said Hijabi Ballers member Humaira Sedu. “For them to even think about playing (sports) — where they aren’t given the same access to resources as their male counterparts — is a huge step. Women in sport is not just about playing. It’s also about fighting for a chance to play every single day. It’s fighting with the world to prove that what you are doing matters, that you deserve to be respected and that you deserve the resources to achieve your goals.”
Women in sports build connections, develop confidence and are encouraged to push boundaries, O’Keefe said.
Sports changed the life of Kelsey Mitchell, who began competing in track cycling at age 24, “quite late in life to be starting a new sport,” she said. The now 28-year-old overcame the steep learning curve to win gold at the 2019 Pan American Games in women’s individual sprint and gold in women’s track cycling at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Keeping sports in your life “doesn’t mean you have to try and go to the Olympics,” said Mitchell. “It can mean signing up for that recreation league, trying out for the new school team, (or) going to a gym or workout class you never tried.”
Four years later, Kadwa has dabbled in many sports, including basketball, tennis, golf and skateboarding.
“Without playing sports, I would not have the leadership and communication skills I have today,” said the Flemingdon Park resident. “I feel very confident not just as a leader, but also as a woman.”
Without playing sports, I would not have the leadership and communication skills I have today.
AMREEN KADWA FOUNDER OF HIJABI BALLERS