Dissertation

Unconventional Means to Enhance Muslim Women’s Inclusion in Sports

Hussain, Umer

2021

Overview

Muslim women’s engagement in sporting activities, both as sport consumers and participants, remains low. The purpose of this research was to investigate the means through which Muslim women’s sport inclusion as both participants and consumers can be enhanced. To achieve this purpose, I conducted three studies. The aim of Study 1 was to examine how traditional sports that are less well-known outside the Indian subcontinent offer opportunities for marginalized Pakistani women from Southern Punjab to participate in physical activities. Following a phenomenological approach, I conducted 16 semi-structured interviews with Kho-Kho and Kabaddi women athletes from underrepresented groups in Pakistan. Elo and Kyngäs’ (2008) three-phase content analysis process (preparation, organization, and reporting) was used to examine the interview data. The study results unveiled that participants feel constrained by the systematic masculine hegemonic culture institutionalized by Pakistani society and the Western sporting paradigm. However, the participants reported a sense of liberation and security via traditional sports (Kho-Kho and Kabaddi). The results highlight that sport managers should focus on using traditional sports to empower Muslim women in various indigenous societies rather than promoting the Western sporting paradigm. This study contributes to the limited knowledge about women’s participation in traditional sports beyond the Western world. In order to explore how Muslim women’s sport consumption can be improved, I conducted two studies (Study 2 and Study 3).The purpose of Study 2 was to understand the motives and lived experiences of women consuming eSports in Gilgit Baltistan, Pakistan, by grounding the phenomenon in Uses and Gratification Theory (Blumler, 1979; Lazarsfeld, 1940). I collected data via observations of eSports video games and in-depth interviews of 9 participants. Participants revealed that they use eSports as a means for an oppositional agency and personal freedom from the patriarchal system. The findings also suggest that participants are facing systematic marginalization and grave intrusion of post-colonization. The study results elucidate that eSports can be a means for providing Muslim women an oppositional agency against the normative system. Overall, Study 2 contributes to the limited scholarship concerning Indian subcontinent women’s eSports consumption.Lastly, the purpose of Study 3 was to explore the predictors of Muslim women’s pro-sport Hijab purchase intention through the lens of the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991). Following Ajzen’s (2019) recommendations, I collected data from Muslim women by using a mixed-method study approach: Study 3.1 (n = 23), Study 3.2 (n = 282), and Study 3.3 (n = 347). The study results showed that Muslim women’s pro-sport Hijab purchase intention is profoundly influenced by subjective norms (β = .578) and their attitude (β = .187). In addition, subjective norms of Muslim women are shaped by their unique injunctive and descriptive normative beliefs. On the other hand, their attitude towards pro-Sport Hijab is dependent upon their distinctive behavioral beliefs. Overall, Study 3 contributes to the limited knowledge about Muslim women’s purchase intention of sporting products targeting their religious beliefs. I discuss the practical and theoretical implications of all three studies.

• Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• Subject: Kinesiology / Sociology / Sports Management / Womens studies
• ISBN: 9798380352536