Strange, Incompetent and Out-Of-Place

Abstract

At the London 2012 Games Muslim women from twenty-eight countries competed in over twenty different Olympic sporting events. In this paper, we critique online and print news articles, op-ed pieces and radio and television reports produced about these women athletes. We focus specifically on mediated representations that were constructed before and during the Games, and which originated and circulated across what is commonly referred to as "the West" (referring here to North America, Canada, Australia and parts of Western Europe). The aim is to ascertain what was considered newsworthy in relation to "Muslim sportswomen," and what this reveals about popular mediated understanding of Muslim sports/women. Ahmed's (2000) discussion of 'strange encounters' is used as an analytical framework to make sense of the ways in which Muslim sportswomen, their sporting bodies and their presence at the Olympic Games was, typically, discussed, defined and represented to Western audiences through a manifold process of constant 'Othering'. Emphasis is placed on exposing the underlying intentions of the authors/writers and contextualizing the relations of power, bias and subjectivity through which female Muslim athletes competing at London 2012 were mis/represented as strange, incompetent and out-of-place. By demonstrating the extent to which orientalist thinking continues to infiltrate contemporary western discussions on Islam and Muslim women, findings in this paper strengthen not only what Ahmed calls an 'ontology of strangeness' but also add to and lend further support to the work of post-colonial feminists, feminist media studies scholars and sociologists of sport. Islam, Muslim Women and the MediaDespite contested opinion on the Islamic underpinnings for the segregation of the sexes, veiling of women and expectations of how women should embody modesty, honor and piety, veiled Muslim women are frequently depicted as being 'religion-bound, ' 'passive' and 'oppressed' (M. McDonald 2006). L. Navarro (2010) found that Spanish mass media perpetuated and reinforced essentialist stereotypes about Muslim women as the 'Other' meanwhile French media adopted the veil issue to purport claims about human rights abuses and legitimize discriminatory attitudes towards diaspora Muslim communities.

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 229: Orientalism vs. Occidentalism

“…Singer et al (2019) underscored that clearly putting forward the researcher's positionality increases the trustworthiness of the research. In the recent past, sport management and sport sociology scholars have extensively written about Islamophobia, Orientalism, and colonized Western scholarship shaping the perception of Muslim athletes and the Muslim world (Hussain & Cunningham, 2020;Ratna & Samie, 2017;Samie, 2013Samie, , 2017Samie & Sehlikoglu 2014;Toffoletti & Palmer, 2017). However, scholars' silence about how the Muslim world depicts the West signifies deep bias (Occidentalism) in sporting academia.…”

“…In the future, research is needed about how Muslim women athletes are seen in both the Western and Eastern worlds. Although, there has been some research about how Muslim women athletes are being comprehended in the Western media (Samie & Sehlikoglu, 2014). For instance, Samie and Sehlikoglu (2014) conducted a critical analysis of numerous online media platforms to understand how the Western media painted Muslim women from 28 different countries during the 2012 London Olympic Games.…”

“…Although, there has been some research about how Muslim women athletes are being comprehended in the Western media (Samie & Sehlikoglu, 2014). For instance, Samie and Sehlikoglu (2014) conducted a critical analysis of numerous online media platforms to understand how the Western media painted Muslim women from 28 different countries during the 2012 London Olympic Games. They found out that most of the Western media described Muslim women as out of place, incompetent, in need of Western men's help, and exotic veiled objects.…”

“…A plethora of scholarly evidence suggests that the Muslim world is being rendered in the Western media as retrograde and inhumane (Ahmed & Matthess, 2016;Malcolm et al, 2010;Samie & Sehlikoglu, 2014). For instance, Malcolm et al (2010) underscored that after the death of Pakistani national cricket team coach Bob Woolmer (a British National), mainstream media painted the Muslim world as unruly, emotional, bizarre, and regressive.…”

Un/making the British Asian Male Athlete: Race, Legibility and the State

“…Critical insights are emerging within the academy that shed light on British Asian, mainly Muslim, amateur sportswomen (e.g. Ahmad 2011, Ratna 2011, Samie 2013 and Muslim sportswomen in an international capacity ( Samie and Sehlikoglu 2015). Yet the visibility and audibility of these sportswomen beyond the academic realm can be limited.…”