Created in collaboration with Hawwa Alam, Muslim Women in Sport is a combined editorial and film project inspired by our personal relationships with sport as Muslim women, exploring the intersection of faith, femininity and cultural identity through our shared perspectives. Drawing from my Gambian, West African background and Hawwa’s South Asian, Pakistani and Indian heritage, it reflects both the shared and distinct experiences that shape our journeys within sport.
Focusing on lived experience and memory, the film traces our individual relationships with sport from childhood to the present, drawing on both personal archives and newly captured footage. Archival clips of us as children playing, being active and exploring sport in our own ways, alongside moments of competition, are woven together with camcorder footage, including behind-the-scenes fragments from the editorial process. This creates a visual language that feels raw and reflective, placing childhood and present-day moments side by side to highlight the continuity of our connection to sport.
Voiceovers from our mothers introduce a generational perspective, offering insight into our early years and emphasising the ways in which sport has been nurtured and passed down across generations. Their presence adds another layer of intimacy, grounding the film in family, memory and lineage.
Produced by a team of Muslim and POC women, this project presents Muslim women as powerful, skilled and self-defined, grounded in collaboration and shared understanding.
Credits:
Creative Director, Stylist + Photographer: Amina Jeng
Creative Producer + Photographer: Hawwa Alam
Videographer + Editor: Vicky Best
Photographer: Aishah Khan
BTS Photographers: Iqra Saied, Rahma Alam, Zara Faisal
Styling Assistants: May Farooq, Hawwa Alam
Runner: Rahma Alam
Talent:
Amina Jeng
Hawwa Alam