To celebrate their 50th birthdays, Mara Gubuan and her Urbandale, Iowa, high school classmates invited six elite Muslim female athletes to RAGBRAI, the annual bicycle ride that took place July 19-25 across the Hawkeye State.
The idea was to “create a counter-narrative” to dispel the misconception that Muslim women don’t compete in sports. The riders of Team Shirzanan, from mostly Muslim countries, showed it could be done — even while wearing headscarves in July’s summer heat.
Gubuan founded Team Shirzanan by collecting donations through her nonprofit company Shirzanan Global, a media and advocacy platform empowering Muslim female athletes. “Shirzanan” means “female heroes” in the Persian language.
The team includes the first female from Saudi Arabia to climb Mount Everest, a Pakistani Olympic swimmer, a Pakistani-American Olympic weightlifter, and an Iranian surfer and snowboarder.
The team, along with thousands of other cyclists, joined this year’s 481.5-mile route, from Sioux City to Davenport.
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