May: Playing soccer on a collegiate level was definitely a challenging yet fulfilling experience. As a pre-med student, I was constantly challenged in the classroom, and soccer was another thing on my plate. Even though it meant having practice everyday at 8 a.m. and weekends filled with games or practices, it never felt like a chore to me. Instead, it was the place I could go to truly find peace. Despite the challenges that collegiate sports brought and the many, many, many fitness tests, I truly enjoyed every minute I was on the soccer field.

May: This is a hard question because I truly enjoyed everything about it. If I were to pick one thing, it would have to be bonding with team members. One of the most important things about soccer is teamwork, because that is what makes a team successful. Everyone – from the goalie to the defense to the midfield to the forwards – had to be on the same page. Every time I started playing with a new team, getting to know the players was a whole new challenge. Once we were all able to understand each other’s style of play, there was nothing more satisfying than watching how easily everything came together and how much better we performed!

Sabrina: I love everything about it! Soccer was always my outlet. If I was having a bad day, was frustrated or felt any type of negative emotion, the soccer field was my refuge. Every time I stepped on that field, I could feel the weight of the world being lifted off of my shoulders. I am also so grateful for the friendships that were created on and off the field. In soccer, you have to learn to work as a team, and while it can be challenging at times, the reward that comes with it is unexplainable. While some may see soccer as just another sport, it truly means so much to me and played such a big role in shaping the person I am today.

Sabrina: I am a strong believer in the idea that if you set your mind to something, you could do it no matter what those around you have to say about it. With that being said, as a hijabi Muslim woman, I have oftentimes struggled with finding people who looked like me that occupied the same spaces I was occupying. I also struggled with voices from those around me who told me that being the SGA president, playing soccer with the hijab on or being outspoken were not things I should be doing as a hijabi Muslim woman.

In my speech, I wanted to make it clear that being a Muslim woman is in no way a means of oppression, but rather it makes it that much more imperative to step up into these roles of leadership and show the world that we are very capable of bringing a lot to the table.

May: Yes, unfortunately I was not the next Mia Hamm as I thought I might be, but medicine is a good second choice (haha). Medical school is definitely a challenge, but playing soccer has given me the tools necessary to navigate through the difficulties. How does that make sense? Well, the one thing that soccer has definitely taught me is discipline. Every day we had practice at 8 a.m. and were expected to be there at least 15 minutes early. As my coach always said, “To be early is on time, to be on time is late, and to be late is unacceptable.”

We also had multiple games throughout the week, which took out [from my schedule] about three hours for home games and anywhere from five-to-eight hours for away games, depending on how far we had to travel. This meant we were missing classes, study time or other important events, and it was always our duty to make sure we were keeping up with everything.

As a medical student where the majority of the day is spent studying and preparing for classes, I use the time management skills and the discipline that I have learned through my experiences playing soccer to be a successful student.

May: I actually struggled with hijab and sports, so this line means so much to me! I put my hijab on in the spring of my senior year in high school, and I remember thinking to myself – I can’t play soccer anymore because I wear the hijab now. After I put it on, I began receiving offers to play collegiate soccer, and even though I convinced myself it wouldn’t be possible to play, I decided to go visit some of the schools just to see how it was.

When I went to Rutgers Newark, the coach told me I wouldn’t be able to meet the whole team because they had finished practice, but I could see some of the students who were in the team study hall. When I walked into the room, there were only three-to-five students in the room, and Subhan’Allah, one of them was wearing hijab. I was so surprised, because I had never thought of other women playing soccer with the hijab on, and there was one sitting right in front me.

I will never forget how I felt after seeing her, a Muslim woman, wearing the hijab just like me and being unapologetically herself. I realized if she could do it, I could do it too. That is what I think [Haute Hijab Sport] is all about. I want the other girls out there to see this ad and to see these hijabs and know that there are people who look just like them and dress just like them and are in these spaces being unapologetically Muslim. I want to be a source of inspiration the same way the Muslim woman from college was an inspiration to me.

Sabrina: When I put on hijab, I had a lot of people ask me if it meant that I was no longer going to play soccer. It was as if people believed it was one or the other; either I chose my religion and the hijab. Growing up in a predominantly white town with no other Muslims in my school and not having any hijabi athletes to look up to at that time, I also believed for some time that I would not be able to wear hijab and continue playing sports.

In working with Haute Hijab, I wanted to dispel that myth and encourage other Muslim woman, who may be facing similar struggles, to cancel out the noise and do what makes you happy. Being a hijabi and being an athlete are not mutually exclusive, and it is important to do what makes you happy and keeps you healthy!

May: My frustration was the lack of options as well as the lack of quality. I had multiple pairs of the same black slip on hijab that I always wore while playing and it was not very flattering. It was also very heavy and I felt like it made me sweat much more than usual. This hijab is the exact opposite! There’s so much variety in both color and style and I barely felt it on my head! This line truly changes the game for sports hijabs!

May: I am all for the two-piece wrap hijab (Tech Sport Wrap and Tech Sport Cap)! It’s so comfortable and lightweight and doesn’t make your head look egged-shape like a lot of other sports hijabs do!

Sabrina: All of them! They are all so comfortable and lightweight, and most importantly DO NOT make you look like an egg! But if I had to choose one, I think I would go with the Tech Sport Wrap, because it is really cute!

Sabrina: Internalized racism. This idea, that is perpetuated by the media, that Muslim women are “not supposed to be athletes,” that we are supposed to be oppressed and not fill roles like that of an athlete, and therefore when we are in those spaces we are doing something out of the ordinary. It takes courage to change and to be inclusive, and a lot of the time our communities have failed us and not shown us the compassion that we deserve simply as human beings. That is why I think it is so important to make noise and normalize something that really should be normalized!

Being a hijabi and an athlete are not mutually exclusive, and it is so important that the world recognize that!

Sabrina: Mohamed Salah! While not a Muslim woman or hijabi, his presence in soccer has brought a lot of attention around what it means to be Muslim in general. I believe that as Muslims, it is our job to be the best at what we do, and that is a form of dawah. Salah has embodied that, and I look up to his ability to maintain his identity as a Muslim and connection to the religion, even with the amount of publicity and attention he has received.

May: Definitely Mohamed Salah! He is an amazing soccer player with amazing ball handling skills and speed! He is so fun to watch! I also look up to him for being such an amazing representation of both Egyptians and Muslims. There are people all over the world screaming his name and looking up to him in a time where Islamophobia is rampant. I am sure the same way I look up to him, there are Muslims and non-Muslims alike who are inspired by his character and his skills.

May: I want Muslim women to know that being a Muslim woman should not stop you from achieving your dreams, but instead should be a motivation. There will always be people who tell you [that] you can’t do something, and sometimes we happen to be the ones who tell ourselves that we can’t do something. But, it is so important to try before we give up on ourselves! As Muslims, we are always told to be the best in everything we do, so let’s do that! Let’s aim to follow the example of the amazing Muslim women in our society today, like Olympian Ibtihaj Muhammed, so that we give everyone no choice but to acknowledge us and make space for us.

Sabrina: Follow your passions and never let anyone tell you that you are not capable of doing something! Let your haters be your biggest motivators, and show the world what hijabi women are capable of. The hijab is a means towards elevation and should never be looked at as an obstacle, so do not let anyone make you believe otherwise.