There is a scarcity of sociological literature on the role and place of sport within the Arab World and the Middle East that centralizes a critical Muslim perspective. This is significant given both their immense geographical scope and the continued and emerging social and political issues within the Muslim world, in which sport and physical cultures play an important role. This timely edited collection responds to an ongoing need for a critical Muslim studies approach to sport and physical cultures in the Arab World, the Middle East, and North Africa.
In the tradition of a critical Muslim studies approach and bringing together a diverse community of scholars, both established and emerging, the chapters utilize sport and physical cultures as its entry point to interrogate and critique Orientalist, Eurocentric, and positivist understandings of Arab and Middle Eastern cultures and communities, engage with intersectional, postcolonial, and decolonial epistemologies to advance this mission, and illuminate and legitimize the sporting knowledge and experiences of those from physical cultures in these regions.
Prioritizing sociological analyses from sport scholars from regions which tend to be omitted within Western sport scholarship, Arab and Middle Eastern Sport situates both the scholars and communities discussed in the sociology of sport literature. Boasting a wide range of analyses, it is appealing to sport scholars from diverse interdisciplinary and methodological backgrounds.
This timely edited collection responds to an ongoing need for a critical Muslim studies approach to sport and physical cultures in the Arab World, the Middle East, and North Africa, illuminating and legitimizing the sporting knowledge and experiences of those from physical cultures in these regions.
Introduction: The Case for Arab, Middle Eastern, and Muslim Perspectives
on Sport; Adam Ehsan Ali and Umer Hussain
Chapter
1. A Tree Begins with a Seed: Muslim Women and Sport Governance in
Oman; Asma Khalil
Chapter
2. The Role of Football in the Algerian Independence: A Revolutionary
Case of FLN Football Team; Guilherme Silva Pires De Freitas and Felipe
Antonio Honorato
Chapter
3. This is now Morocco's World Cup! Challenging Orientalist
Portrayals of Morocco at the 2022 FIFA World Cup; Umer Hussain and Adam Ehsan
Ali
Chapter
4. I Do My Duty of Praying, Fasting and Staying Away from Sins: A
Qualitative Study Centering Muslim Palestinian Footballers; Moetiz Samad
Chapter
5. Gender Washing or Gender Equity? Women and Sports In Contemporary
Saudi Arabia; Arnot Svoboda, Simona afaķkovį, Jorge Knijnik, and Billy
Graeff
Chapter
6. Football in the Shadow of Politics: Persian-Speaking Comments on
Twitter/X Refusing the Iran Football National Team to Sing National Anthem;
Mahdi Latififard and Amin Yadegari
Chapter
7. I Watch Women Struggle with Great Admiration and I Am Always
Proud: A Comparative Analysis of Women's Exercise and Sports Culture in The
Early Turkish Republic and Contemporary Türkiye; rem Kavasolu and Canan
Koca
Chapter
8. Postcolonialism, Community Building, And Safe Spaces: Sport-Based
Interventions for Middle East and North Africa Refugee and Displaced
Communities; Farah J. Ishaq
Chapter
9. Beyond the Fancy Headlines: A Bibliometric Exploration of FIFA
2022 Influence on the Middle East; Muhammad Haroon Rasheed and Rabia Farooq
Chapter
10. Sultans of The Net: Media Framing of the Turkish Womens National
Volleyball Team; Emma S. Ariyo, Ryan Turcott, and Katherine C. Stenning
Chapter
11. Unraveling Iran's Sport Landscape in The Shadow of Political
Control; Marjan Saffari
Adam Ehsan Ali is Assistant Professor of Sociocultural Studies in the School of Kinesiology at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada.
Umer Hussain is Assistant Professor of Sport Management at the Sidhu School of Business & Leadership at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA.
