For as long as NoorAlexandria Abukaram believes her story can help bring change, then she’s going to keep telling it.
Miss Abukaram, a 16-year-old junior at The Bounty Collegium in Sylvania and a member of the Sylvania Northview High School Girls Cross Country Team, was disqualified from the district cross country meet in mid-October for wearing her hijab.
As part of her fight against discrimination in sports, her organization, LetNoorRun, hosted an event Friday evening at Lourdes University to encourage a conversation about incidents that have not only affected her, but other Muslim athletes as well.
Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir, a University of Memphis basketball player who competed while wearing a hijab, and Amaiya Zafar, the first boxer to wear a hijab in a sanctioned bout, took part in a panel discussion with Miss Abukaram during the event.
Ms. Abdul-Qaadir was prevented from playing international professional basketball because of a rule from the International Basketball Federation that prohibits players from wearing head coverings. Ms. Zafar was at one point barred from boxing because she wore a hijab.
“It was like I knew them for 30 years,” Miss Abukaram said about meeting Ms. Abdul-Qaadir and Ms. Zafar. “I’m not even 30 years old.”
The panelists discussed that athletes are often allowed to go so far before suddenly the rules stop them from going further. For example, Ms. Abdul-Qaadir played basketball through college, and it was only when she tried to play professionally that she couldn’t play in a hijab.
Ms. Abdul-Qaadir had to fill out waivers to wear a hijab while playing basketball, but the enforcement of the rule varied.
“In college, which was surprising, nobody ever asked for the waiver,” Ms. Abdul-Qaadir said. “The waivers are, honestly, they should be obsolete at this point.”
Ms. Zafar emailed officials with USA Boxing for a month to try and get permission to wear a hijab in the ring, and eventually she was told no. She then decided the best way to fight was to get her story out there.
“I was going to elementary schools,” she said. “I was doing everything I could to get the story out there.”
When nothing changed, she decided to fight and be disqualified, she said. Ms. Zafar’s record states that she lost her first fight because of the disqualification. Within a year of that, the rules changed to allow her to fight locally with a waiver.
For this kind of discrimination to affect three different athletes in three different sports shows that it’s more prevalent than people believe, Miss Abukaram said. That’s why it’s important for athletes to tell their stories and encourage dialogue, especially with people who haven’t had the same experiences and might not understand.
Faten Froukh, Miss Abukaram’s cousin-in-law, said when members of the family vacationed in a cabin in Michigan, Miss Abukaram would get up every day at 5 a.m. to run. She was so dedicated to preparing for her races, Ms. Froukh said, and it was disheartening to see her torn up by being disqualified for wearing a hijab during a cross country meet.
“But she took it and she did something powerful with it,” Ms. Froukh said. “I’m proud of her.”
After the disqualification, Miss Abukaram's coach, Jerry Flowers, took responsibility for not turning in the required paperwork to allow her to wear a hijab as she raced, and for also deciding not to tell her about her disqualification until after she competed in the event.
Miss Abukaram has said that she was not angry toward the school, her coach, or her teammates, rather her frustration was with the rule that had never been an issue before.
OHSAA officials said that following the October event, an “immediate” revision was made to the regulations of religious headwear, essentially eliminating a previous waiver by allowing a head coach to notify a referee “that a player wishes not to expose his/her uncovered head” before the start of a competition. On Dec. 5, the OHSAA Board of Directors approved the revision.
First Published January 25, 2020, 2:58 a.m.
