In 2016, Canada sports broadcaster TSN aired a documentary, Radical Play, which focuses on the players of football team Diverse City FC, many of whom are Muslim and wear hijabs. As posited in the documentary, following the lifting of FIFA’s ban on the wearing of the hijab, soccer became the women’s vehicle for gaining more confidence and agency, which they use to become social media “crusaders” who fight the online radicalization of girls and women. Utilizing theories of gendered Orientalism, I analyze Radical Play by exploring how Muslim sportswomen are constructed in relation to sport, radicalization, and empowerment. I argue that Radical Play frames Diverse City FC’s story through Western rescue discourses and construct a modernizing process where Muslim girls are said to be empowered by the power of Western sport. The constructed transformation of the women into radicalization informants that keep their communities’ safe acts as a preferred outcome of colonial benevolence and acceptance towards “development subjects.” While the main narrative of Radical Play is leveraged by gendered forms of Orientalism, a critical reading shows how the players voices create cracks in this overarching story that help unsettle dominant understandings of Muslim sportswomen.

中文翻译：

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稀有地点和白人救星？TSN 激进比赛中的性别东方主义、激进化和穆斯林女足运动员的构建

2016年，加拿大体育广播公司TSN播出了一部纪录片《Radical Play》，重点关注Diverse City FC足球队的球员，其中许多人是穆斯林，戴着头巾。正如纪录片中所描述的，随着国际足联取消戴头巾的禁令，足球成为女性获得更多信心和力量的工具，她们利用这些力量成为社交媒体“十字军”，对抗女孩和妇女的网络激进化。利用性别东方主义理论，我通过探索穆斯林女运动员在体育、激进化和赋权方面的构建方式来分析激进游戏。我认为《激进游戏》通过西方救援话语构建了多元化城市足球俱乐部的故事，并构建了一个现代化进程，据说穆斯林女孩被西方体育的力量赋予了权力。将妇女转变为激进化的线人，以维护社区的安全，是殖民主义仁慈和接受“发展主体”的首选结果。虽然《激进游戏》的主要叙述受到了东方主义性别形式的影响，但批判性的解读表明，球员的声音如何在这个总体故事中造成裂痕，从而动摇了对穆斯林女运动员的主流理解。