This is a response to an article I read recently entitled “How to make cycling better for everyone: A Muslim perspective on inclusivity“.
First things first, what I get from reading the article is that the worst that happened to Tom Würdemann and company is that they were on the receiving end of… a few weird looks. Nobody called out any racial slurs. Simply a few odd looks. Let’s put that into perspective shall we?
Nobody refused to sell them a bicycle, components or accessories “because they are muslim”. Nobody said “you can’t cycle here”. Nobody said “you can’t join this cycling group or this cycling forum”. So actually I think people in the West are rather inclusive towards muslim cyclists.
Compare this with what we already know happens in the Middle East.
Women are physically attacked for daring to ride a bicycle.
“The men, especially those who saw us for the very first time, they would throw stones at us, they would hit us [with] their cars,” recalls Habibzai.
“Local shopkeepers, beside the roads, would throw their vegetables [at] us; I’ve been hit by potatoes, by apples, and so many other things; whatever they had in their hands to throw at us. And they use very abusive words for us, very embarrassing. So, we would sometimes feel very ashamed of even being a girl.”
To try to avoid the hostility, many of the female riders have got used to going out in the early hours, from about 5am until 8am.
Sarmat has learned to her cost what can happen when she doesn’t. “There was one time that I was attacked,” she says. “It was Ramadan. And because we couldn’t go cycling during the day because everyone was fasting and it was really difficult to ride, especially with the hot weather, we used to go after the dinner, iftar. There was one night I went with one of my male teammates, and there were a couple of guys on the street … and somebody just pulled me off the bike.”
Despite all these troubles, despite the disapproval of family members and the abuse of strangers…
Wonderful. That sounds like women cyclists are treated very poorly in some Islamic countries. I wonder why? Could it be that, as Tom Würdemann says, “the use of a bike is perceived as low-status” in muslim countries? Again, is that our fault? Well no, no it isn’t.
That’s right, we hear that it is often muslim’s own family members who discourage cycling.
Nice. Now somehow, us Westerners copped the blame.
We certainly never actively and knowingly discouraged muslims from taking up cycling.
It’s not just Afghanistan though is it? Yes it happens in a load of countries, including Syria.
In Syria, it is socially unacceptable for women and girls to ride a bicycle. Women must either take the bus or drive. Due to recent attacks and bombings around the city, security checkpoints have been set up, making a 15-minute journey to work or school last two hours or more.
Riding a bicycle in the Syrian streets is not easy as bike paths don’t exist. The pavement can be rough, and drivers are not used to making way for bicycles. Most cyclists go without helmets.
In 2015, cycling was temporarily banned by security authorities, who said they were unsafe, given the rise in attacks and explosions. Authorities confiscated many bicycles under various pretexts. While bicycles are no longer banned, many people are still afraid to pay for or own a bike for fear that it might be confiscated.
How about Tom Würdemann takes a long hard look at his own culture, criticise that first, before pointing the finger at us collectively here in the West?
Moreover, is it our fault that there are practically zero elite-level cycling brands, components or manufacturers based in either North Africa or the Middle East? Nope. Not our fault. That is Islam’s fault. And yes of course there have been fatwas given against cycling. Of course.
So how about Mr Tom Würdemann quit the eternal muslim victimisation and simply… get on with it?
Perhaps he would do better to write an article about cycling in the Arabic language, and have a great big whinge about his own cultural background instead?
