（ニューヨーク）— サウジアラビアの女性が、健康のため、競争のため、そしてプロとしてスポーツを行うにあたり、これまである程度の前進が見られた、とヒューマン・ライツ・ウォッチは本日述べた。リオデジャネイロ五輪開催にあたり、スポーツ当局の新たな女性部門も含むサウジアラビア政府は、学校、企業、競技連盟、団体競技にまだ残っている壁を取り除く必要がある。
今回4人の女性がサウジアラビア代表としてリオ五輪に出場する。2012年のロンドン五輪の2人出場から、わずかだが改善したといえる。しかし、サウジアラビア国内では公立学校を含む様々な場面で、女性や少女がスポーツに参加することが許されていない。この背景には、女性の日常を多岐にわたって制約する差別がある。男性後見人の許可なしには、女性は海外旅行や結婚、刑務所からの保釈も許されない。仕事や医療でさえ後見人の同意が必要な場合もあり、車の運転も認められていない。
ヒューマン・ライツ・ウォッチのグローバル・イニシアチブ部長ミンキー・ワーデンは、「サウジアラビアの女性はスポーツの世界で驚異的な進歩を遂げている。文字通り最高峰に挑み、長い河をいくつも泳いできた」と述べる。「困難な法的・文化的・宗教的ハードルにもかかわらず、彼女たちはその決意、才能、努力、そして魂を見せている。リオ五輪が開幕されるなか、サウジアラビアは女性と少女のスポーツ参加を阻む根深い差別に取り組み、この状況を変える必要がある。」
ヒューマン・ライツ・ウォッチによる2012年の報告書「魔の一歩（Steps of the Devil）」では、サウジアラビアの女性と少女がスポーツおよび体育への参加を実質的に禁じられていた実態が、健康などに及ぼす悪影響について詳しく調査・検証した。
サウジアラビア政府は女性と少女に対し、男性や少年と同じようにエクササイズやスポーツをする機会を拒否して、男女差別をしている。2016年7月の時点では、国内大会や国が主催するスポーツリーグへの女性参加が認められていない。一方、前向きな動きとしては8月1日に、スポーツ総合庁が女性部門の新設を発表し、その責任者としてリーマ・ビン・バンダル・アル・サウード（Reema Bint Bandar Al Saud）王女を女性スポーツ振興担当に任命した。
サウジアラビアの女性は、国立競技施設へのアクセスも認められていない。国内大会や国主催のスポーツリーグへの参加はもちろんのこと、男子代表チームの試合を観戦することさえ禁じられている。国内にはスポーツ総合庁が規制・支援する公認スポーツクラブが150以上存在するが、女性がそれらにアクセスすることは容易ではない。同庁が組織する国内競技大会の参加も男性のみだ。なお、サウジアラビア五輪委員会には依然として女性部門が存在しない。
前出のワーデン部長は、「スポーツ総合庁の女性部門設置は歓迎できる動きだ。同部門が女性のスポーツや、ほかの運動へのアクセスに関する改革を率いなければならない」と述べる。
同国は徐々にではあるが、一部前向きな変化を成し遂げてきた。ヒューマン・ライツ・ウォッチは公立学校における女子の体育教育についての情報を、サウジアラビア政府に対して複数の書簡で求めたが、明確な情報を得ることはできなかった。しかし、近時の報道によると、一部の公立学校が女子の体育教育を実施している。私立学校では長らく体育教育を行うことが許されていたが、2013年5月にはサウジアラビア当局がこうしたプログラムの継続を許可した。ただし、女子生徒が「適切な衣服」を着用し、かつ女性指導員の監督下にある場合という条件つきだ。
女性たちはまた、全国に女性専用のフィットネススタジオを開設している。しかし、主要な問題である、国家的、宗教的、官僚的、文化的なバリアは根強く、女性が健康上の理由やレジャーのため、または競技として スポーツをするには難しい状況だ。インストラクターになったり競技選手になるための訓練を受けるには、国を離れるしか方法がないと話すサウジアラビア女性もいる。
ヒューマン・ライツ・ウォッチは、選手や活動家、医師、トレーナー、起業家など、様々な人生を歩むサウジアラビア女性に聞き取り調査を実施。彼女たちはスポーツをする権利を主張したり、女性専用フィットネスセンターを開くために、どのような方策を取っているか詳しく話してくれた。女性の健康のために活動しているある女性活動家は、より多くの女性専用ジムを開設するため、自身の商工会議所での地位をロビー活動に利用しているという。ビジネスとして女性専用の私設競技チームを運営したり、女性専用ジムの合法化を政府が拒否していることに屈しないで未承認でもジムを開設したり、国際競技大会に出場するために国内外でトレーニングする女性たちもいる。
スポーツ総合庁、教育および保健省、サウジアラビア五輪委員会が公立学校、ジムのライセンス、体育教師の養成に関して抜本的改革を行えば、数百万人の女性や少女の生活と幸福に継続的な好影響をもたらし、スポーツをする権利の平等を彼女たちに気づかせるきっかけにもなろう。
サウジアラビアが今年発表した「ビジョン2030（Vision 2030）」は、同国の経済と発展に関する新たな政府のロードマップだが、女性や少女のスポーツへのアクセスを改善する可能性がある。「スポーツを定期的にする機会はしばしば制限されてきた。これは変わることになる」とロードマップに明記されているからだ。サウジアラビア高官は、女性と少女にスポーツを許し、かつ奨励し、この約束を果たさなければならない。
オリンピック憲章は、「すべての個人はいかなる種類の差別も受けることなく、オリンピック精神に基づき、スポーツをする機会を与えられなければならない」と定めている。国際オリンピック委員会（IOC）は2014年12月、全会一致で「オリンピック・アジェンダ2020」と呼ばれる一連の改革を採用。ジェンダー平等をオリンピック・ムーブメントの中心に据えた。主な改革としては、IOC自身のアジェンダとして初めて、女性や少女を差別する国を開催都市の候補から、除外した。
2015年1月にはIOCのトーマス・バッハ会長が、サウジアラビアと隣国バーレーンが五輪を共催し、男性選手はサウジアラビアで、女性選手はバーレーンでそれぞれ競技に参加するというサウジアラビアの提案を却下。サウジアラビアは差別禁止規定に従うまで招致活動への参加が認められないであろうと述べた。バッハ会長は「『非差別』へのコミットメントは、今後のオリンピック招致を望むすべての国にとって絶対条件となる。サウジアラビアのような国は、女性選手が自由に参加できるよう、真剣に取り組まなければならない」と述べている。
差別はオリンピック・ムーブメントの理念と相容れない、とするオリンピック憲章およびそうした差別を根絶するというIOCの使命にそって、スポーツ並び生活全般において、女性や少女に対する差別に終止符を打つ改革を早めるよう、IOCはサウジアラビアに対して求めるべきだ。IOCは女子公立学校における体育の義務教育化や、サウジアラビア五輪委員会における女性部門の設置、女性の競技連盟の創設、ユースオリンピックなどの国際競技大会への女性参加に対するすべての障害の排除といった改革を、サウジアラビア高官と協力して推進する必要がある。
サウジアラビア政府はこれまでにも、女性や少女に対する差別の根絶向け速やかな措置を講じると公約してきた。これはサウジアラビアの国際法上の義務でもある。サウジアラビア政府がこうしたゴールを一刻も早く達成できるよう、IOCも同国を奨励・支援するという役割を担う必要がある。さもなくば、サウジアラビアでは次の世代の少女たちも、スポーツをし、それに伴う健康上の利点を享受するための重要な機会を持てないまま成長することになってしまう。
サウジアラビア政府への提言：
• サウジアラビア諮問評議会による2014年4月の勧告に従い、義務教育期間中の少女のためにすべての公立学校で体育の義務教育化を導入し、それに関する明確なタイムラインも設定する
• 学校で体育を教えられるよう女性が研修を受けることを保障する
• サウジアラビア五輪委員会に女性部門を設置する
• 女性の競技連盟を設立し、国内外での女性の競技参加を許可する
• 国際競技大会への参加を望む女性に対し、男性同様の助成・訓練・支援を提供し、こうした大会への参加を許可する
• 男性代表チームの試合観戦も含め、女性がスタジアムでのスポーツイベントに参加することを許可する
ワーデン部長は、「小学校の体育館での運動から始まり、オリンピックで金メダルをとるまで、サウジアラビアの女性と少女は夢を叶えられるようになるべきだ」と指摘する。「サウジアラビア当局はスポーツにおけるジェンダー差別を解消する必要がある。それは国際人権法上の義務だからという理由だけではない。同国の次世代の少女たちの健康と幸せという、その後長きにわたる恩恵のためにである。」
How Saudi Women Are Changing the Game for Sports Equality
Saudi Arabia’s 13 million women and four million girls face severe discrimination in all aspects of their lives. The country’s male guardianship system requires women to obtain permission from a male guardian to travel abroad or marry, and women may be required to provide guardian consent to work or get health care. This system, and the related issue of sex segregation, is the backdrop to other pervasive restrictions on women’s day-to-day lives in Saudi Arabia, including with respect to exercising for fitness and engaging in sports.
There is ongoing discussion and debate within Saudi Arabia on the health benefits of sports for women and on the urgency of reform to ensure women’s access to sports.
In Saudi Arabia, schools are segregated by gender. Many girls’ schools do not include physical education or sports programs in the curriculum. But boys’ primary, intermediate, and most secondary state schools have compulsory physical education classes. Since 2013, private schools have been permitted to offer physical education programs to girls so long as the girls wear “decent clothing” and are supervised by female instructors.
In 2011, the Education Ministry wrote to Human Rights Watch that, “The issue of girls' physical education is under serious consideration as one of the priorities of the ministry’s leadership that regards physical education in schools as one of the necessities helping male and female students to stay healthy.”
In April 2014, the Shura Council, an advisory body to the king, directed the Education Ministry to study the possibility of introducing mandatory physical education for girls in state schools in compliance with Sharia rules on dress and sex segregation. The council voted overwhelmingly – 92 to 18 – in favor of the recommendation. But, in March 2015, then-Education Minister Azzam al-Dakhil stated that even if physical education is introduced in girls’ state schools, it will not be mandatory.
Saudi Arabia has still not incorporated physical education as part of a compulsory curriculum for girls in state schools.
Despite the government’s lack of progress, some state schools have created some access to physical activity for girls. In 2012, a state girls’ school in the Eastern Province erected basketball hoops and allowed students to play at break time. The Saudi daily al-Watan reported that the school was the first state-run girls’ school that openly encouraged sports. In March 2015, soon after the education minister stated physical education would not be mandatory, Okaz (another Saudi daily) nevertheless reported that five state schools in Ha’il had introduced fitness programs for girls. Yet there is no indication that the large majority of state schools have followed suit.
“Warda,” who like some other women interviewed asked Human Rights Watch not to use her real name, is a Saudi woman who runs a private sports club for girls in Saudi Arabia. She told Human Rights Watch that, “The majority of public schools for girls still have no sports or gym classes.” She noted that introducing these programs would require outfitting and providing girls’ state schools with gym facilities and trained instructors.
Saudi Arabia’s State Sports Infrastructure
Saudi Arabia does not grant women equal access to state sports infrastructure. Women are not allowed to attend men’s matches as spectators, or participate in national tournaments or state-organized sports leagues. None of the more than 150 official sports clubs regulated and supported by the General Authority for Sports are open to women, and the national competitive tournaments organized by the authority are for men only.
In April 2015, the Shura Council renewed its recommendation to the General Presidency for Youth Welfare (GPYW), the body since renamed the General Authority for Sports, to establish a women’s section. On August 1, the General Authority for Sports came through on this recommendation and created a women’s department. However, the Saudi National Olympic Committee still does not have an official women’s section.
Several female athletes in Saudi Arabia reported that they struggle to find professional training or coaching, and many often need to train outside the country, drawing on their own or their families’ finances.
“Amal,” a Saudi martial arts expert who lives abroad, said, “I am used to training every day so when I go to vacation for like three to four weeks there [in Saudi Arabia], I have nowhere to train…I try to contact (martial arts) schools and there are some – but only for guys, of course.”
In 2013, 27-year-old Raha Moharrak made history as the first Saudi woman and the youngest Arab to reach the summit of Mount Everest. However, she points out that her challenges to train as a Saudi woman were nearly insurmountable: “There were no outdoor training facilities, so to prepare I had to get a driver to take me to the middle of the desert, where I would fill a backpack with sand and run up and down hills.”
Many Saudi women have undertaken their own sports initiatives across the country, creating fitness clubs, organizing sports competitions for women, and classes ranging from yoga to CrossFit.
Women have also formed a number of private sports teams for basketball, badminton, and football. In April, the Jeddah United under-20 women’s basketball team, a private team started in 2003, participated in a basketball tournament in the Maldives after previous trips to the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Malaysia, and the United States. In the decade since Jeddah United was founded by the Saudi sportswoman and entrepreneur Lina Almaeena, the team has expanded and has been a prominent trailblazer in team sports as the first private Saudi sports company to train both boys’ and girls’ teams and to promote the health benefits of exercise and team sports.
Sports Teaching and Instruction
The General Authority for Sports, led by Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, has yet to open women’s sport facilities or provide clear guidelines and licensing opportunities for female sports instructors, coaches, or referees. However, with a growing emphasis on health and sports in the country, and with a new women’s section in the authority, there are promises of change.
“In school our P.E. teachers were from Egypt,” said one Saudi female athlete who went to private school in Saudi Arabia in the early 2000s. “We never had a Saudi teacher that taught us P.E. and I haven’t heard of any Saudi P.E. teachers.” But women athletes Human Rights Watch interviewed said that while the majority of teachers and trainers in Saudi Arabia are still from abroad, women are increasingly claiming their right to participate in, learn about, and teach sports. Some women study online for certification by international fitness associations.
“Current trainers in Saudi do not all have the opportunity to become certified trainers, so mostly they are self-trained,” said “Salma,” who founded a fitness center for women.
“Dina,” is a cycling instructor in the Eastern Province who is passionate about spinning, or indoor stationary cycling, and co-founded an exercise studio. “Fitness in Saudi is growing a lot, especially with females. At the studio we invest in [training] Saudi fitness instructors. They came to learn from us because they wanted to become instructors.”
By creating exercise spaces and through instruction, Saudi women are not only creating sport opportunities, but also breaking ground to provide women with professional development including the possibility of new career opportunities to become fitness instructors.
Hurdles for Women’s Fitness
Although the General Authority for Sports licenses men’s fitness clubs, women interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported difficulties in obtaining licenses and some said their clubs had been shut down for operating without those licenses. In 2009 and 2010, the government closed several private gyms for women on the grounds that they were unlicensed, prompting an online campaign against the ban by a group of Saudi women under the ironic slogan, “Let her get fat.”
Women still struggle to open and license women’s fitness centers. Some international chains such as “Curves,” a gym for women, have obtained licenses for “physiotherapy” through the Health Ministry. However, this is an expensive, slow, and bureaucratic process, according to a leading female fitness studio founder. Because state licensing is still difficult, women have opened many “health clubs,” with some access to exercise, ranging from yoga classes to mixed martial arts to Zumba, but these generally operate in a legal gray area. “Aisha,” a climber and women’s sports advocate, said that because of restrictions, many women open and operate such these out-of-status “health clubs” under licenses for hotels, tailors, or nail salons, and are not able to offer the variety of health and sporting opportunities available for men.
Dina, the cycling instructor, said that after she started working at a gym in 2013, the facility had to close because it lacked legal permits. “We didn’t have any place that we could go to just work out or enjoy a class,” she said, “except if it was under a hospital or under a hotel or if you were doing it privately in a compound.”
“Salma,” a Saudi businesswoman and sports instructor, said her gym was shut down in 2013 for operating without a license: “When the government closed our center all the members started going crazy. They were contacting us saying we have to do something – for example write a petition and get all the women members ready to go to the ministry or go to the governor of the region and ask for an exemption.” Salma said she, along with other members of the local chamber of commerce, presented their case to the youth welfare minister and talked about the importance of licensing women’s gyms: “He said he was with us 100 percent and that something has to be done; we just need to find the right people to take this forward.”
After these discussions, Salma opened a fitness center where she and other trainers could continue to teach spinning, Pilates, and strength training classes. The studio is still not licensed as a women’s gym under the General Authority for Sports – but based on her discussions with the authorities, Salma believes that the government will not only continue to allow them to operate, but soon begin to license female gyms, so that they can operate legally.
In 2016, the government announced the creation of an inter-ministerial committee to study in detail the question of establishing and licensing women’s sports clubs, the Saudi Gazette reported. This could be a major advance to regularize fitness for women, and create new areas of economic opportunity for women in business.
Saudi Arabia’s “Vision 2030” recognized that: “Opportunities for the regular practice of sports have often been limited. This will change.” Vision 2030 was accompanied by the National Transformation Plan (NTP), which sets specific benchmarks to achieve by 2020. The NTP included a number of goals to increase sports and exercise in the country, including designing a sports curriculum, training teachers, and launching extracurricular sports programs. Among other relevant benchmarks, the Ministry of Health is tasked with improving “public health services with focus on obesity.”
Yet Vision 2030 and the NTP only set one specific goal for increasing women’s access to sports and exercise: the creation of a budget-line to license women’s sports halls. While this would certainly be a step forward, the government could and should do much more to increase women’s sporting opportunities and ensure that they can exercise to the same extent as men.
International Sports Competitions
At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, three countries sent men-only national teams: Brunei, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. Qatar provides an example of how a previously reluctant government can rapidly pivot to signal strong government support for women’s participation in sports. In 2001, Qatar set up the Qatar Women's Sport Committee. Since then, the Committee has incorporated a sports curriculum in its schools and sought to host international sports events for women. As a sign of official Qatari backing for women athletes, the Qatari Olympic shooter Bahiya al-Hamad was selected to lead with the national flag at the 2012 Olympic Games in London’s opening ceremony.
Saudi Arabia allowed female athletes in an international competition for the first time at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. The two women put forward, Wujdan Shaherkani in judo and Sarah Attar in track and field, did not meet Olympic qualifying standards, but were invited to participate in the weeks running up to the start of the 2012 Games under international pressure as Saudi Arabia was the last country sending a men-only national team. The Saudi female athletes were given IOC “wild cards,” a way to invite athletes whose participation is deemed important for reasons of equality and participation. The Saudi National Olympic Committee ordered the women to dress modestly, be accompanied by male guardians, and not mix with men. The women had only weeks to prepare.
Unfortunately, the women’s participation in London did not establish an immediately durable precedent. Saudi Arabia sent a male-only national team to the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea. Mohammed al-Mishal, then secretary-general of Saudi Arabia's Olympic Committee, told Reuters that Saudi Arabia’s 2014 Asian Games team did not include any women because, “None have yet reached a level for international competition.”
According to Saudi female athletes who spoke to Human Rights Watch, women are training outside the country who hope to qualify as competitors on an international level, but they need support at home in Saudi Arabia, including sports facilities. As the climber and sports advocate Aisha told Human Rights Watch, Saudi women “are really capable of competing internationally and their times could qualify them for the bigger races, international races – there is actual talent and skill.”
In September 2014, al-Mishal promised women’s participation at the 2016 Olympic Games, but only in sports that according to him were “accepted culturally and religiously [for women] in Saudi Arabia” including equestrian sports, fencing, marksmanship, and archery.
But in July 2016, Saudi Arabia announced that four women will compete in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, two of them runners. The women who are selected again under the “wild card” system include Sarah Attar and Cariman Abu al-Jadail, runners in track and field; Lubna al-Omair, in fencing; and Wujud Fahmi in judo.
The Saudi National Olympic Committee, responsible for organizing competitive tournaments and selecting athletes to represent the country internationally, should open a women’s section to support and train these and other female athletes. Sports federations should have women’s as well as men’s sections to compete in sports and arrange national and international competitions.
Health and Sports
Exercise through team sports and physical education in school can contribute to fitness, and play a major role in the prevention of non-communicable diseases. The women Human Rights Watch interviewed uniformly mentioned exercise as helping them and friends with health concerns.
Obesity is a significant problem in Saudi Arabia. A 2010 study found that 34.4 percent of Saudi children between 5 and 18 were overweight (23.1 percent), obese (9.3 percent), or severely obese (2 percent). According to the Saudi Health Ministry, obese and overweight adults constitute more than 70 percent of the population. Females are significantly more obese than males, 44 percent to 26 percent.
Saudi Arabia has among the highest levels of physical inactivity among women in the world. In one 2015 study, Saudi women had the second highest level (73.1) of the 38 Muslim countries covered. A 2015 study by the International Diabetes Federation found that Saudi Arabia had the highest prevalence of diabetes compared with other Middle East and North African countries.
The World Health Organization says that physical inactivity is one of the leading causes of such chronic conditions as hypertension and diabetes. It is also one of the main risk factors for cardiovascular disease, cancer, and dementia – all conditions that result in premature death, disability, and loss of productivity. In 2014, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes accounted for more than 60 percent of deaths in Saudi Arabia. Reforms to increase women’s and girls’ access to and participation in exercise and sport are one way to help address the broader public health problem of physical inactivity among Saudi women.
Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 specifically mentions the link between exercise and health. It sets a goal of encouraging “widespread and regular participation in sports and athletic opportunities” to contribute to “a healthy and balanced lifestyle.” Aisha, the climber and fitness trainer, says, “Health-wise I think I owe it to sports and physical education…I feel healthier, I feel happier, and I have energy.”
Saudi Arabia, which acceded to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 2000, is legally obligated to end discrimination against women without delay, including fulfilling their equal right to health and ensuring that women and men have the “same opportunities to participate actively in sports and physical education.”
“Nadia,” a pediatrician who is also a devoted diver who exercises for health and well-being, has high hopes for girls in her country. “I wish for them a better future – to have the right to do sports indoors and outdoors, that they could attend matches, and that they could represent our country in the national and international competitions.”
Profiles of Saudi Women
Sarah Attar
In 2012, Sarah Attar became the first Saudi woman to compete in track and field at the Olympics. Along with the judo competitor Wujdan Shaherkani, she was one of only two women who represented Saudi Arabia at the London Games. She wrote, “I received the invitation from the International Olympic Committee only a month and a half before the opening ceremony.”
Attar, who has completed nine marathons since the London Games, studied art at Pepperdine University in California, and graduated with honors in 2014. She lives and trains in Mammoth Lakes, California, but has not forgotten her roots: “While visiting family in Saudi Arabia, I had the opportunity to speak at my cousins’ all-girls’ school. It was incredible to see their excitement for athletics and experience firsthand how I made an impact on their lives.” In 2013 the Saudi artist Shaweesh, part of the Gharem Studio collective, created a graffiti image of Sarah Attar running into the history books as one of the first two Saudi female Olympians.
In a blog published in June 2016, she wrote further of her experience: “The most powerful thing I have observed about our participation in the 2012 Games is that there is now a generation of Saudi Arabian girls growing up with the possibility of women competing in the Olympics. They see sports and athletic competition as something they can strive toward, and that is incredibly powerful.” Attar will compete again in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
Royal Highness Princess Reema Bint Bandar Al Saud
Princess Reema Bint Bandar Al Saud, a member of the Saudi royal family, is a business leader, and a public health and wellness advocate. In August 2016, she was appointed the first head of a women’s section of the Saudi General Authority of Sports. In this newly created role, she could have the responsibility for implementing a series of essential recommendations in this study, including to license women’s gyms and establish a curriculum for physical education in girls’ state schools.
“Women are going to the gym and getting fit,” she says. “They are definitely engaging in their health.”
Princess Reema has said that her goal is “Connecting the knowledge that it’s not just what you eat, it is how you think, it’s how you breathe, and it’s how you move.” On sports and fitness for girls, she points out, “If you want to change mindsets, you have to start when they’re young.”
Raha Moharrak
In 2013, Raha Moharrak – then 27 – made history as the first Saudi woman and the youngest Arab to reach the summit of Mount Everest. With limited sports education and facilities for women in Saudi Arabia, Moharrak had to train herself to climb the world’s most challenging peaks. In just one year, she had conquered eight mountains, including Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa.
Now a health advocate, she says, “I can't imagine my life without sports and exercise.”
In 2015 at the age of 29, Moharrak learned how to ride a bicycle to join Team Shirzanan, a collective of Muslim sportswomen, who rode across the state of Iowa in the US on an awareness campaign promoting female sports participation as a human right. Moharrak’s memoir, For All Us Dreamers, will be published in 2017.
She said, “My hope, if I one day have daughters, is that they are born into a time where there are no firsts. There are no records, because we've done them all…I want to leave this world knowing that all the firsts are gone, are taken. There's no such thing as the first Arab or first Muslim, the first woman to do this or that. I want them to come in and say, ‘Wow, everything's been done. What can we do more?’ That’s what I want for my kids one day… They can be whatever they want, whoever they want, as long as they're happy and healthy.”
