Amna Suleiman ( ar, آمنه سلیمان) is a teacher and advocate for women's

cycling Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from two ...

in Gaza. As of 2016, she leads the only women's cycling club in Gaza. Suleiman was born in

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

and moved to Gaza in 1990s. As of 2016 she was living in

Jabalia Camp Jabalia Camp ( ar, مخيّم جباليا) is a Palestinian refugee camp located north of Jabalia in the Gaza Strip. History The Jabalia refugee camp is in the North Gaza Governorate, Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of ...

Palestinian refugee camp Camps are set up by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to accommodate Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA, who fled or were expelled during the 1948 Palestinian ...

located north of

Jabalia Jabalia also Jabalya ( ar, جباليا) is a Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestini ...

, where she volunteers at a local orphanage, teaches the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...

, and cycles with a local group of women.

Role in women's cycling

In the region where Amna Suleiman cycles, the

Gaza strip The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...

, the custom is for women to not ride their bike past the age of

puberty Puberty is the process of physical changes through which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of sexual reproduction. It is initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads: the ovaries in a girl, the testes in a boy. ...

. Suleiman began cycling in 2015 for health reasons and to remind herself of better times in her childhood. Soon after, she established what is considered to be the first women's cycling club riding under the

Hamas Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...

party's administration in Gaza. Women's participation in sports has been restricted in the Gaza strip since the Hamas party came to power. According to Ahmad Muheisin, an official in Gaza’s youth and sports ministry office, women's cycling is considered to be a “violation” of Gazan values. Some have noted that it was more common for women to ride bikes in Gaza before the mid-1980s. Suleiman advocates for women to continue riding bicycles after puberty, and has been quoted in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' telling young women in Gaza that they should insist to their future husbands permission to cycle be a condition of their marriage. In 2016 she was profiled by

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

as part of their

BBC 100 Women ''100 Women'' is a BBC multi-format series established in 2013. The annual series examines the role of women in the 21st century and has included events in London and Mexico. Announcement of the list is the start of an international "BBC's women ...

series. She says she hopes that one day women will be able ride a bicycle without stigma and disapproval.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Suleiman, Amna Living people BBC 100 Women 1980s births People from Gaza City Cycling advocates