FIFA's double hijabophobia: A colonialist and Islamist alliance racializing Muslim women soccer players

This paper focuses on FIFA's 'hijab ban' crisis, or the disqualification of the Iranian women's national soccer team from the 2012 Olympics because the players wore a head cover. Utilizing Arab, Muslim and anti-racist feminist theories, I analyze a colonialist and Islamist patriarchal alliance built on two gendering and racializing logics. I refer to these overlapping logics as 'double hijabophobia.' Both FIFA and Muslim-majority nations used medicalized and cultural notions of the hijab, safety and dress laws. Double hijabophobia denies Muslim women players their bodily integrity and excludes them from world football. This analysis also recognizes Muslim women athletes who are working to overcome colonialist and Islamist racializing and gendering logics in sport.