Rio de Janeiro: Fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad is aiming to drive her sabre through bigotry when she becomes the first American athlete to compete at the Olympics wearing a hijab.
The articulate 30-year-old African-American Muslim was catapulted to prominence in January after clinching her place on the US Olympic team at the World Cup in Greece.
Muhammad’s participation in Rio comes in the midst of a US presidential election campaign marked by anti-Islamic rhetoric while incidents of threats and vandalism at mosques reached an all-time high last year.
The ugliness is all-too familiar for Muhammad, who has faced discrimination since childhood, when her skin color and hijab would often draw stares or abuse.
Indeed, part of the attraction of fencing was the fact that Muhammad could blend in more or less seamlessly.
Muhammad hopes that her Olympic journey may play a small role in shifting the kinds of attitudes that have surfaced during the US election campaign. “It’s a tough political environment that we’re in right now, it’s not easy,” Muhammad said.
“Muslims are under the microscope and I’m hoping to change the image that people may have of Muslim women,” she said. Muhammad diplomatically declined to speculate on what life for American Muslims might be like if Donald Trump is elected to the White House in November. “I hate to talk about what ifs,” she said. “I’m hoping we can see Muslims in more of a positive light.”
