"Can't Ban Us": Haute Hijab's Striking New Sports Line Is Making a Statement

According to Melanie Elturk, the Haute Hijab [1] community has been asking for an athletic line for years. "It was something that came right from our customer base," the Haute Hijab founder and CEO told POPSUGAR. "And we didn't want to do it unless we could really do it right."

The 10-year-old brand released its first line of sport hijabs [2] this week, accompanied by a powerful marketing campaign featuring seven hijab-wearing athletes from around North America. The slogan: "Can't Ban Us," a statement that speaks directly to the outdated and prejudiced rules around the sports world preventing women athletes from wearing hijab in competition.

Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir is one athlete who has experienced this firsthand. A basketball phenom, Abdul-Qaadir broke high school scoring records [3] for her state and went on to play college basketball at Memphis and Indiana State. She was the first NCAA Division 1 athlete to wear hijab. But when she looked to go pro in Europe, she ran into a rule from FIBA, the international basketball governing body, that banned the use of head coverings during games. Rather than remove her hijab, Abdul-Qaadir decided to fight the rule and raise public awareness of the injustice. She was successful, but at a high price: by the time the rule was removed [4] in 2017, Abdul-Qaadir had missed her shot at a pro basketball career. "I had to literally give up my career to make a statement," Abdul-Qaadir told POPSUGAR. "I questioned whether or not I should take my hijab off to play. I don't want any other Muslim girl to have to make that decision."

Abdul-Qaadir is the epitome of the "Can't Ban Us" slogan, Elturk said: an exceptional athlete who was forced to choose between her religion and her sport. "Muslim women are more engaged in sport than ever," she said. "We're not going to be silent. We're not going to sit down. We're not going to stop." The drive of the new line: to gain visibility, push for acceptance, and support Muslim girls and women in their sports and every day workouts. Keep reading for more on the collection and its message.

How Does Haute Hijab's Sport Line Stand Out?

Product-wise, one of the key components in Haute Hijab's sport line is the sustainably-produced fabric, which is derived from coffee grounds. This fabric can keep your body temperature down, Elturk said, allowing athletes to stay cool as they work. The fabric is also odour-repellant, moisture-wicking, and protects against UV rays.

The style of each hijab was also important. "What we knew from customer research is that the biggest concern that Muslim women had was: how am I going to look in it?" she explained. The brand's goal was to combine functionality with a design that made women feel beautiful when they wore it, which was why Elturk wanted to offer four different styles. "Typically what you'll see is just one piece that's a pull-on," she said. "We knew that with the Muslim consumer, it's not a one-size-fits-all. Every woman has different concerns with head shape and hair texture and face shape and colours, and so we wanted to provide them with a full collection and a full line in a breadth of colours that allow them to mix and match pieces."

How Do the Sport Hijabs Perform?

For Abdul-Qaadir, the biggest factor is comfort: when she plays basketball, her hijab can't be too tight or too loose, especially if it's moving around while during a game. "You don't want to have to fidget, especially in the game of basketball," she said. "If you have a hand on your head trying to pull the hijab back, then you might miss a catch, you might miss a shot, you might miss a steal." Abdul-Qaadir liked Haute Hijab's design for the comfortable and fidget-free fit, and said it passed another test as well: it looked great.

"I'm not really a fashionista," she laughed. "As a baller, you step on the court and you're just ready to ball. But the fact that I actually looked good in it, that excited me." Her personal favourite style: the Criss-Cross. "I felt fierce. I felt comfortable. It just made me look good."

"Can't Ban Us": The Message Behind the Haute Hijab Sport Line

Even more than personal comfort and performance, Abdul-Qaadir has high hopes for what this line can do for Muslim women athletes. "Being a Muslim woman is hard in itself, and then when you add in the athlete aspect, you are usually one of one," she said. In her case, the reasoning behind FIBA's head covering ban was that it impeded a player's safety. At the time, Abdul-Qaadir said she resorted to using "makeshift pieces of material" she scrounged up from her closet to cover her head. "If there was actually a sport hijab back at that point, then maybe things would've been different," she said. "These organisations and these governing bodies that I was going against had nothing to base 'safety' off of."

"When we work out and when we engage in sports, we're oftentimes makeshifting a scarf into something that will work for us," Elturk agreed. "It's a poor experience and it hinders your performance. For so many years, there were women who were compromising and wishing that there was a product out there that allowed them to actually excel and that would enhance their performance rather than bringing them down."

Elturk is looking to provide that product and inspire that strength, while pushing for visibility and acceptance of Muslim women athletes. "I want them to see, acknowledge, and validate Muslim women in sport. I want to break that barrier," she said.

"I want Muslim girls to know that they're strong and that they're able," Abdul-Qaadir added, "and to go ahead and take that chance and take that opportunity [to play sports] because you don't know whose mind or whose heart you can change about what we represent."

Check out more of the Haute Hijab sports collection ahead.