Throughout 2024, MSA have been celebrating their 10th anniversary by delivering a Heritage Project which looked to capture and share the stories of members and their experiences of being involved with MSA. 14 ladies were interviewed as part of the project and shared their memories of joining MSA, opportunities they have been given by the organisation, and the community formed by MSA.
The project was born from a realisation that the stories of Muslim women in sport are significantly underrepresented in archives and heritage. As a result, the newly recorded oral histories will be donated to The London Archives to form the beginnings of a collection relating to Muslim women’s sport in London which will be an invaluable resource for researchers and historians in the future.
Across the course of the project, 7 volunteers were trained in oral history interviewing techniques by Project Manager & Oral Historian, Laura Owen. The volunteers visited The London Archives to see the behind the scenes workings of an archive, and explored both the digital and physical collections. They then recorded the stories of 14 MSA members from a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences, documenting the breadth of MSA’s work; from sports such as football, basketball, swimming and boxing; to wellbeing activities such as photography walks, mental health sessions and art therapy.
MSA also worked with photographer, Sylvie Belbouab, to commission portraits of MSA members taking part in sports and other activities. The project culminated in an exhibition, which toured across 5 venues in London during 2024. The exhibition can be viewed online here.
You can listen to clips from the oral stories here.
Get in touch if you would like to hire our pop-up exhibition for events or venues.
Full interviews can be heard via The London Archives, where they have been deposited for posterity.
Creating HERstory: Celebrating 10 Years of Muslimah Sports Association is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we have been able to record, preserve and share the stories of Muslimah Sports Association for generations to come.
