Arab and Middle Eastern Sport

Critical Muslim Perspectives

Adam Ehsan Ali|Umer Hussain
Emerald
Emerald

This book can be opened with

Glassboxx eBooks and audiobooks can be opened on phones, tablets, iOS and Android devices

Hardback
9781835492635
01 October 2025
$132.00
eBook (PDF)
9781835492628
11 September 2025
$132.00
eBook (ePub)
9781835492642
11 September 2025
$132.00

Note on our eBooks and Audiobooks: you can read our eBooks (ePUB or PDF) and listen to audiobooks on the free Emerald Books app on iOS, Android, and desktop. Or read and listen on Emerald's online reader (ePUB eBooks and audiobooks only). To purchase a digital book you will need to create an account if you don’t already have one. After purchasing you will receive instructions on how to get started.

  • Description
  • Contents
  • About

There is a scarcity of sociological literature on the role and place of sport within the Arab World and the Middle East that centralizes a critical Muslim perspective. This is significant given both their immense geographical scope and the continued and emerging social and political issues within the Muslim world, in which sport and physical cultures play an important role. This timely edited collection responds to an ongoing need for a critical Muslim studies approach to sport and physical cultures in the Arab World, the Middle East, and North Africa.

In the tradition of a critical Muslim studies approach and bringing together a diverse community of scholars, both established and emerging, the chapters utilize sport and physical cultures as its entry point to interrogate and critique Orientalist, Eurocentric, and positivist understandings of Arab and Middle Eastern cultures and communities, engage with intersectional, postcolonial, and decolonial epistemologies to advance this mission, and illuminate and legitimize the sporting knowledge and experiences of those from physical cultures in these regions.

Prioritizing sociological analyses from sport scholars from regions which tend to be omitted within Western sport scholarship, Arab and Middle Eastern Sport situates both the scholars and communities discussed in the sociology of sport literature. Boasting a wide range of analyses, it is appealing to sport scholars from diverse interdisciplinary and methodological backgrounds.

Introduction: The Case for Arab, Middle Eastern, and Muslim Perspectives on Sport; Adam Ehsan Ali and Umer Hussain

  • Chapter 1. A Tree Begins with a Seed: Muslim Women and Sport Governance in Oman; Asma Khalil
  • Chapter 2. The Role of Football in the Algerian Independence: A Revolutionary Case of FLN Football Team; Guilherme Silva Pires De Freitas and Felipe Antonio Honorato
  • Chapter 3. “This is now Morocco's World Cup!” Challenging Orientalist Portrayals of Morocco at the 2022 FIFA World Cup; Umer Hussain and Adam Ehsan Ali
  • Chapter 4. ‘I Do My Duty of Praying, Fasting and Staying Away from Sins’: A Qualitative Study Centering Muslim Palestinian Footballers; Moetiz Samad
  • Chapter 5. Gender Washing or Gender Equity? Women and Sports In Contemporary Saudi Arabia; Arnošt Svoboda, Simona Šafaříková, Jorge Knijnik, and Billy Graeff
  • Chapter 6. Football in the Shadow of Politics: Persian-Speaking Comments on Twitter/X Refusing the Iran Football National Team to Sing National Anthem; Mahdi Latififard and Amin Yadegari
  • Chapter 7. “I Watch Women Struggle with Great Admiration and I Am Always Proud”: A Comparative Analysis of Women's Exercise and Sports Culture in The Early Turkish Republic and Contemporary Türkiye; İrem Kavasoğlu and Canan Koca
  • Chapter 8. Postcolonialism, Community Building, And Safe Spaces: Sport-Based Interventions for Middle East and North Africa Refugee and Displaced Communities; Farah J. Ishaq
  • Chapter 9. Beyond the Fancy Headlines: A Bibliometric Exploration of FIFA 2022 Influence on the Middle East; Muhammad Haroon Rasheed and Rabia Farooq
  • Chapter 10. Sultans of The Net: Media Framing of the Turkish Women’s National Volleyball Team; Emma S. Ariyo, Ryan Turcott, and Katherine C. Stenning
  • Chapter 11. Unraveling Iran's Sport Landscape in The Shadow of Political Control; Marjan Saffari

Adam Ehsan Ali is Assistant Professor of Sociocultural Studies in the School of Kinesiology at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada.

Umer Hussain is Assistant Professor of Sport Management at the Sidhu School of Business & Leadership at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA.