The Women's Islamic Games, also called the Muslim Women's Olympics, were an international

multi-sport event A multi-sport event is an organized sporting event, often held over multiple days, featuring competition in many different sports among organized teams of athletes from (mostly) nation-states. The first major, modern, multi-sport event of intern ...

started in 1993. The event was organised by the Islamic Federation of Women's Sport. Muslim women of all nationalities were allowed to take part in the Games. The event has been held in 1993, 1997, 2001, and 2005 in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. The 1993 games saw athletes from 13 countries, which increased to 44 countries by 2005. In 2001, Britain became the first Muslim-minority country to participate. The games were recognized by the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...

, and Mary Glen-Haig supervised the first games in 1993 as the IOC's representative.

History

The Islamic Federation of Women's Sport was established in 1991. Faezeh Hashemi, daughter of former Iranian president

Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani Akbar Hashemi Bahramani Rafsanjani (25 August 19348 January 2017) was an Iranian cleric, politician and writer who served as the fourth president of Iran from 1989 to 1997. One of the founding fathers of the Islamic Republic, Rafsanjani was the ...

, was instrumental in initiating the games. Hashemi also made an effort to include some controversial aspect in the opening ceremony for each games, in the hope of normalizing it. In 1996, for example, the opening ceremony included

cycling Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...

, which women were not allowed to do in public at the time. The 2005 opening ceremony included men and women dancing together in a variety of styles, including ballet and disco. The debut games in 1993 included

para table tennis Para table tennis is a parasports which follows the rules set by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). The usual table tennis rules are in effect with slight modifications for wheelchair athletes. Athletes from disability groups can ...

for disabled sportswomen. Men and male coaches were absent from the audience at the sporting events which necessitated less body coverage, such as

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

, but were permitted to attended events such as

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

and rifle shooting, which did not require a departure from islamic clothing, and

horse riding Equestrianism (from Latin , , , 'horseman', 'horse'), commonly known as horse riding ( Commonwealth English) or horseback riding (American English), includes the disciplines of riding, driving, and vaulting. This broad description includes the ...

events, since an athletic chador had been designed for the competitors. The games were primarily funded by the Iranian government, followed by Iranian corporate sponsors. In 2005, the only non-Iranian sponsor was

Samsung Samsung Group (; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous a ...

. That year, however,

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

did make equipment donations in recognition of the attention the games were bringing to

futsal Futsal is a variant of association football played between two teams of five players each on a court smaller than a football pitch. Its rules are based on the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game of association football, and i ...

. In 2018, Masoud Soltanifar, the Iranian Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, announced the country would revive the event, although this did not come to fruition.

Goals

#In sports and international competition, Muslim women cannot compete without protective clothing and headgear in accordance with Islam. #Inspire Muslim women to achieve global competitiveness, on a regional, continental, world and Olympic scale. #The Women's Islamic Games will be an international event, and records shall be kept of athletes' performances.

Editions

Sports

Medal count

Twenty five nations have won at least one medal in the Women's Islamic Games; twenty three nations have won at least one gold medal. As of the 2005 Games,

has won the most gold medals as well as the most medals overall.

References

External links

Official Web Site of Women's Islamic GamesClips from the 1997 Opening Ceremony/Interview with Faezah Hashemi (YouTube)Clips from the 2005 Opening Ceremony (YouTube)
{{International multi-sport events Defunct multi-sport events Islam and women Defunct women's sports competitions Recurring sporting events established in 1993 1993 establishments in Iran Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2005 2005 disestablishments in Iran