How should organisers respond to the argument that this kind of challenge is too difficult for Muslim women?
Some people argue that a physically demanding challenge like this is simply too difficult for Muslim women to take on. How should this argument be addressed?
Answer
This argument doesn’t hold up well against the wider reality of Muslim women’s lives around the world.
In many parts of the Muslim world, women regularly do physically demanding work in agriculture and other manual trades, often for long hours and in difficult, muddy conditions, while maintaining traditional dress and their faith and customs throughout.
It’s also worth pointing to the many other physically demanding charity challenges Muslim women already take on, from mountain climbs to marathons, which shows there’s nothing inherently at odds between physical challenge and modest dress or faith.
Refugee women, whom this specific challenge is designed to honour, offer perhaps the clearest answer of all: those navigating unfamiliar and difficult terrain, harsh weather, language barriers and profound personal loss show a level of strength and endurance that few challenges could match.
Standing in solidarity with that reality, even briefly, is the whole purpose of the event, and it’s difficult to argue something is “too hard for Muslim women” when Muslim women are already living through so much harder, every day, elsewhere in the world.