The Arab American News
RAMADAN 2011
28
MONTREAL
— Le ng out shrill cries, several young women in a Montreal
taekwondo class kicked their way through the exercises, not a hair out of place
as they were demurely covered by an Islamic sports hijab.
Their religion prohibits these female athletes from showing off their firm
physiques, or their hair. Yet Western society also frowns on the wearing of tra-
di onal Muslim headscarves in sports compe ons.
So Iranian-born Canadian designer Elham Seyed Javad came up with an idea
to marry the two worlds and allow young girls and women to take part in phys-
ical ac vi es while also adhering to strict Islamic rules.
And the order books for the 27-year-old’s start-up are fast filling up, with
calls for her head coverings arriving from around the world including Japan,
Germany and Australia.
The company iQO Design is now eyeing a lucra ve contract to supply the
Iranian women’s football team, with the aim that they will be worn during the
next Olympic Games.
The idea came to the young designer in 2007 a er five young Muslim
women were thrown out of a Montreal taekwondo tournament because their
headscarves were deemed by the sports federa on to be dangerous.
Seyed Javad, who was studying industrial design at the University of Mon-
treal at the me, was outraged but instead of protes ng decided to find a so-
lu on.
At school, she designed a slip-on hooded T-shirt made of
stretch fabric. The university immediately seized on its po-
ten al: its agency for commercializing its scien fic discov-
eries and inven ons filed patents for the sports hijab on
her behalf in Canada and the United States.
Made of a fabric that moves perspira on away from the
body, the garment slips on like a balaclava and is ed at
the back.
“It’s much less hot, and it stays in place,” trainer Gaelle
Texier said. And, she added, it doesn’t mess up your hair.
“It’s a compromise,” taekwondo student Asmaa Ibnouzahir
said. “It allows us to play the sports we enjoy, that we were doing but
were forced to quit.”
The university’s commercial unit, Univalor, said it has even greater poten-
al. “Of course we looked to market it to young Muslim women in sports, but
also for F1 racing, go-car ng, and hospital opera ng rooms,” Univalor’s
Thomas Mar nuzzo said.
It is not just for athletes, he explains. An Australian policewoman, for ex-
ample, recently started wearing one as part of a trial.
“My goal is to separate the religious connota on from the sports connota-
on,” Seyed Javad said. “So when other organiza ons approach us, it’s very
posi ve because the religious aspect is not linked to the garment.”
The so-called ResportOn is currently sold for $63 over the Internet (
-
porton.com). Each prototype is designed and sewn in a Montreal studio,
adapted to suit the par cular circumstances of each customer. But Javad is al-
ready dreaming big, and hopes one day to sell the garment in sports stores
everywhere.
The company is now pitching its wares to hospitals and racing drivers, as
well as people with dreadlocks who want to keep their prized hairdos in place
even when out on the sports field.
— AFP
This April 22, 2011 photo shows Elham Seyed Javad (C) posing with a taekwondo team in Montreal
wearing a sport hijab she created to allow the young girls of the Muslim taekwondo team to take
part in the compe ons. Photo: AFP
The company iQO Design is now eyeing a lu-
cra ve contract to supply the Iranian women’s
football team, with the aim that they will be
worn during the next Olympic Games.
The ResportOn is
a ached to a T-
shirt with a special
opening at the
back for wearers
to readjust their
hair. Photo:
Guardian.
The so-called ResportOn is currently sold for $63 over the Internet. Each
prototype is designed and sewn in a Montreal studio, adapted to suit
the par cular circumstances of each customer. But Javad is already
dreaming big, and hopes one day to sell the garment in sports stores
everywhere.
