A call to action | Auckland News | Local News in Auckland

Thanks to female-only gyms and flexible dress codes, more Muslim women in Auckland are improving their fitness levels. Rebecca Blithe finds out more.

Muslims girls and women don't run marathons. That was what Nargis Ali was told when she shared her exercise plans with a fellow Muslim.

"She said to me, 'Muslim girls don't do that'. But now I'm a gym bunny," says Mrs Ali, a Blockhouse Bay resident and doctoral candidate at Auckland University of Technology.

The comment sparked her interest in Muslim women's barriers to physical activity and misconceptions about religion and culture.

"It seems many women think they can't exercise because of their religion. But that idea is actually cultural. In the Koran you are charged with looking after your own body," she says of her thesis findings, which she hopes will become a reference for Auckland Muslim women's physical activity and health.

Little is known about the health and physical activity of Muslim women, migrants and those born in New Zealand.

"From what I've seen, the literature points to a lot of women [outside of New Zealand] being sedentary and having low sun exposure," says Mrs Ali.

She believes this stems from Islamic beliefs coupled with exercise options in other countries.

Mrs Ali says a hijab, which covers the head, fulfils religious requirements.

Twenty of the women she has interviewed on the topic considered wearing a burqa - a cultural rather than a religious decision - restricting certain sports and uniforms, but Mrs Ali has met one woman heavily involved in sport who still adheres to this.

"I'm interviewing a triathlete. She wears a long T-shirt and pants made of swimsuit material and a cap. She has devised her own way around it." She exercises for six or seven hours a week."

Similarly, Muslim women in Australia have even come up with a swimming outfit known as "the burqini".

By religious tenet, Muslim women are not permitted to socialise with men. This can pose problems for sporting involvement and attendance at gyms. Another of Mrs Ali's potential interviewees, Tasneem Mohammed, who migrated from Fiji 12 years ago, says going to gyms can be a challenge. "Other women at my work are invited to use the gym and they do. But I can't because they don't have a 'women's only' option there."

But Mrs Mohammed has adapted and formed a netball team with the Muslimah Sports Association.

Despite misconceptions and barriers, Mrs Ali says New Zealand's sports campaigns, such as Push Play, are encouraging young Muslim women to become and remain active.

"In New Zealand, it seems women are being infected with this thing of being active. They are finding spaces. There are all sorts of women's gyms starting up. This should only improve as the awareness increases that you're not doing anything against your religion."

Wear and tear

Nargis Ali also presented her doctorate proposal to the Occupational Health and Physiotherapy conference in Auckland in August. Here, she discussed the challenges for physiotherapists and midwives treating Muslim women in a way that conforms to their religious stipulations.