Punching Back - Gender, Religion and Belonging in Women-Only Kickboxing

In the Netherlands, girls and young women are increasingly active in women-only kickboxing. The general assumption, in the Netherlands and in western Europe more broadly, is that women's sport is a form of secular, feminist empowerment. Muslim women's participation would then exemplify the incongruence of Islam with the modern, secular nation-state. Punching Back provides a detailed ethnographic study that contests this view by showing that young Muslim women who kickbox establish agentive selves by playing with gender norms, challenging expectations, and living out their religious subjectivities.

About the author

Jasmijn Rana is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at Leiden University.

Product details

• Authors: Jasmijn Rana
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 01.05.2026
• EAN: 9781836955771
• ISBN: 978-1-83695-577-1
• No. of pages: 180
• Series: New Anthropologies of Europe: Perspectives and Provocations
• Subjects: Guides > Sport > General, dictionaries, handbooks, yearbooks, history; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography, Sociology: sport & leisure, Sociology: sport and leisure, Social and cultural anthropology, Gender studies: women, Gender studies: women and girls, SPORTS & RECREATION / Cultural & Social Aspects