The Head of Participation and Communities at the Muslim Sports Foundation has told ConnectSport about how she wants to see a stronger “collective voice” emerge for community sport and sport for development over the coming years.
Asma Ajaz-Ali (pictured right) was speaking at the recent Leeds Summit on Community Sport for Development & Diplomacy. More than 70 participants, practitioners and policy-makers, athletes and academics gathered at the University of Leeds over two days to debate the power and potential of community sport as a developmental and diplomatic tool for both local and global impact.
And Asma, who was speaking to ConnectSport reporter Josh Chadwick-Birch as part of a series of short interviews with attendees at the Summit, says that given some of the challenges that UK society is currently facing, it is more important than ever for “diverse voices and perspectives" to be brought "into the heart of decision-making so that change is not done to communities but with them”.
POWERFUL
“I want to see a collective voice emerge in community sport,” she told ConnectSport.
“Summits like this are powerful because they bring people together, but what matters is what happens afterwards whether the conversations lead to real change rather than just talk. I am looking for something deeper than surface level statements or tokenistic gestures. I want us to face the hard questions and be willing to have difficult but necessary conversations, especially with the societal challenges we are living through now.
“My hope is that over the next five years we build a truly inclusive ecosystem in sport, one that recognises and celebrates cultural and faith identities rather than asking people to leave them at the door. For the Muslim community, that would mean accessible and welcoming places to play, coaches and leaders who understand cultural context and opportunities to progress without compromising identity or values. But it is about more than access it is about belonging, visibility and the power to shape the system.”
IMPORTANT
Asma revealed: “I have been in community sport for nearly three decades. I have seen important milestone changes, but rarely at a scale that truly shifts the landscape. Too often, decisions are based on data points and participation rates without asking who lives in those communities and what their lived experience is. We need to bring diverse voices and perspectives into the heart of decision-making so that change is not done to communities but with them.
“For me, this is about moving beyond short-term projects or headline numbers and towards a system that is responsive, representative and courageous so it can adapt to the complex, nuanced realities of people’s lives and play a genuine part in tackling wider social issues.
“That is the kind of game-changing shift I want to see begin with gatherings like this Summit.”
Following the close of the Summit, attendees contributed to the co-creation and publication of the Leeds Declaration on Community Sport for Development & Diplomacy. Read it here.
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