:)
This mention of Curves and men reminded me of our earlier discussion.
Muslim Women, Exercising Modesty
By Eman Quotah
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, January 6, 2004; Page HE01
Abiola Heyleger, an instructor at DC Yoga in Dupont Circle, starts her class on a recent Saturday morning by lighting candles in a sunny studio decorated with posters of Indian deities and yogis. Wearing a white, midriff-baring sport top, baggy white pants and a white head scarf, Heyleger, 33, leads her three female students, all dressed in yoga pants and tank tops, through a vigorous workout of sun salutations and breathing exercises.
Nothing unusual for a yoga session.
But when class ends and the studio doors are opened, Heyleger peers out nervously, readjusts her scarf, which has come loose, revealing her hairline, and slips on a fleece jacket. There could be men in the hallway, and she doesn't want them to catch a glimpse of her bare head or arms.
Heyleger, who converted to Islam three years ago, covers herself in accordance with Islamic law, which requires that women conceal their bodies, except for their faces and hands, in front of men other than their husbands and close relatives.
Like many Muslim women, Heyleger sees no conflict between her Islamic mode of dress and her commitment to physical fitness. But working out where there are no men can make it easier to balance the two. So this fall, she and two other Muslim instructors from DC Yoga organized a workshop for Muslim women, which led to the studio's offering classes for women only.
"I thought there would be other Muslim women who feel the same way," she says -- women who want to stay fit but feel uncomfortable working out at a co-ed gym or studio. Teaching a women-only class lets her dress more comfortably, she says, than she does when men take her class. Keeping her head scarf on in front of other women is a personal choice.
The Modest Marathoner
Not all Muslim women cover their hair. And many women who do follow their religion's dress requirements don't let that stop them from running in public, learning judo or playing soccer.
Shaza Fadel, 27, a graduate student at Duke University, ran the Kiawah Island Marathon in South Carolina in 1999. She says the secret to running while staying modest is "CoolMax, lots of CoolMax . . . especially in summer," and a non-cotton scarf with something to keep it in place. CoolMax works well for Fadel because athletic wear made from the breathable synthetic fabric carries perspiration away from skin and causes moisture to evaporate more quickly than it would from, say, cotton sweat pants.
Training for the marathon in a North Carolina summer, Fadel experimented with different fabrics to find a scarf with the best ventilation. "I do try to be careful not to wear something very tight, like a ski cap, around my head in warm weather," she says. "That would be dangerous."
Americans used to running shorts, tank tops and tennis skirts might find strange the idea of a woman covering her entire body while working out. But Tayyibah Taylor, founder and editor of Azizah, a Muslim women's lifestyle magazine based in Atlanta, says, "It's not true that in order to get a good workout you have to wear skimpy clothes. . . . . You don't see anybody in a halter top and shorts doing kung fu."
Taylor walks and practices tai chi every day, wearing sweats, a long-sleeved top and a cap or short scarf. She also has done yoga for more than 30 years, recently took up Middle Eastern dancing and has been known to go skin diving in a wet suit that covers her entire body.
Making Muslims Fit
Many Americans might be surprised to learn that Muslim women who cover their bodies also want to be fit. "If you're not showing [your body,] people think you don't care what it looks like," Taylor says. That's not true, she says. Women who cover up in public "want to be attractive, but not for every man who cares to take a peek."
Fadila Muhammad, 50, of Temple Hills, says she loved to exercise before she became Muslim 30 years ago. She exercises at home and at a co-ed fitness club, mixing up her workouts with a variety of activities such as Middle Eastern and African dance (the drummer in her African dance class is a man), yoga, jump rope and "hula hoop for my waistline."
"I just have fun with it," she says.
And she doesn't let clothes get in the way. "I don't wear a long, cumbersome something," she says, instead combining an XXL T-shirt with sweat pants and a jacket. The warmth that the layers help her generate doesn't faze her. "It's going to get hot exercising anyway," she says.
Attitudes toward women and athletics vary within the Muslim community, Taylor says, with older, immigrant women less likely to exercise and more likely to consider some activities, such as running, inappropriate for women.
On the other hand, she says, Muslim women who grew up in the United States tend to be more vigilant about staying in shape. For them, as for other Americans, Taylor says, "sports is part of our cultural vernacular. It's front and center in our entertainment."
Cultural gaps aside, physical fitness does have some backing in Islamic religious tradition. According to scholars, Muhammad, Islam's founder, encouraged physical activity among his followers, including women. The Web site Islam Online (www.islamonline.net) reports that "when the Prophet . . . had a race with [his wife] Aisha . . . he made sure that men were on the front and Aisha in the back."
The site advises that women can participate in athletics as long as they maintain a balance between "a Muslim woman's right to practice sport and the necessity of preserving her dignity and honor."
For those who believe that means exercising away from men, American life can pose some obstacles because men are hard to escape. Melanie Schaengold, whose three fitness centers belong to the Curves chain of health clubs for women, currently has an all-female clientele and staff. But when a Muslim woman and her husband visited one of her Arlington facilities and asked for assurances that no men would ever be present, she couldn't make any promises.
"I can't absolutely guarantee never," Schaengold says, "because we have air conditioners go out or things of that nature," which might require the attention of a service person who turns out to be a man. A man maintains the fitness equipment, too, she says, and sometimes men come to the facility to pick up their wives.
Muhammad, however, doesn't believe Muslim women need to segregate themselves men when they exercise, and she thinks it's a shame that many use the presence of men as an excuse not to take part in physical activities.
"Life is much more interesting with men present," she says. And, she points out, when Muslim men and women make the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, which is required once in their lives, they perform the rituals side by side.
A Universal Question
Of course, many non-Muslim women also struggle with preserving their dignity while huffing and puffing on a treadmill, and some seek out women-only classes or gyms and workout clothes that don't expose their bodies.
Latrina Wilson, 32, of Largo, is a Muslim woman who says that when she works out, "I'm as modest as possible -- without passing out." She notes that the non-Muslim women in her Jazzercise classes, most past their twenties, are "into covering their bodies" for modesty's sake, and some even wear head wraps.
Muslim women say they stay fit for the same reasons anyone does: Working out boosts their energy, lowers their stress, helps them sleep, and makes them look and feel young.
"I really like working out and I like being physically fit," Wilson says, because "you feel better and look better."
Keeping fit gives Wilson a sense of being in control and protecting herself that she also gets from dressing in an Islamic fashion. And Muhammad sees a direct connection between physical fitness and faith. Calling the body the "house of the soul," she says, "If the house is not in good shape, then the soul will not prosper."
Taking the link even further, she calls Muslims' daily prayers, which involve a series of standing, bending and kneeling motions, a kind of exercise.
Taylor agrees, saying that Muslims jokingly refer to the hours-long Taraweeh prayers, traditional during the holy month of Ramadan, as "Muslim aerobics."•
Eman Quotah is a Washington based freelance writer.
© 2004 The Washington Post Company |
