Playing Gender, Religion, and Ethnicity: Girls’ Football and Public Playgrounds in the Schilderswijk, The Hague, the Netherlands

In the Netherlands, there is an enormous increase in girls’ participation in football, both in official clubs and in other, more ‘unorganised’ sports spaces such as playgrounds and football courts, especially amongst girls with migrant and Muslim backgrounds. Girls’ increasing football participation challenges the dominant idea of football as a men’s sport. Furthermore, Muslim girls’ football participation plays against the backdrop of an increased problematisation of the presence of Muslim citizens in Dutch public spaces. However, in current feminist and anthropological studies, leisure and s... Mehr ...