JASMIJN RANA, 2022, Punching Back: Gender, Religion, and Belonging in Women-Only Kickboxing, New York: Berghahn Books, 180 pp., ISBN 9781800736900

Keywords: Anthropology of Sport; Gender; Anthropology of Islam; Belonging; Europe

In Punching Back: Gender, Religion, and Belonging in Women-Only Kickboxing, Jasmijn Rana presents a compelling exploration of how the growing participation of Muslim women in sports offers fresh perspectives on their lives and identities in contemporary Europe. Focusing on women-only kickboxing classes in the Hague, Rana challenges dominant theories on learning, belonging, and secularity by showing how these ostensibly secular spaces become arenas where personal self-improvement intersects with religious commitments. By taking the religious pursuits of the participants seriously, Rana disrupts reductive narratives that portray Muslim women as either oppressed by tradition or empowered only through secular practices. Situated at the intersection of anthropology of sport, anthropology of Islam, and gender studies, Rana’s ethnographic work conducted between 2011 and 2013 reveals how young Moroccan-Dutch women use kickboxing to reimagine and negotiate their gendered and religious identities. Her analysis critiques racialized narratives and integration discourses, demonstrating how Muslim women’s agency in sports transcends simplistic binaries while remaining embedded in broader social structures.

The ethnography is set in two gyms located in the Hague Southwest. Both gyms offer women-only classes, although they differ in the extent to which they enforce the concept of “women-only”. One gym predominantly serves Turkish women, while the other is largely frequented by Moroccan women, offering a comparative lens through which Rana investigates themes of gender, religion, and ethnoracial minorities. These spaces are emblematic of broader societal dynamics in the Netherlands – a country that often perceives itself as a homogeneous, secular, and modern nation, yet one where racialized minorities, specifically Muslim communities, face persistent scr