Today’s post is the last in the African Women in Sports Series that has been running since January 2019. For this, AWLN returns to the athletics world as there is a person who has turned out to be exceptional and so AWLN decided to profile her.
The inspiring lady is Nawal El Moutawakel who started out as a young girl interested in running to becoming a lady challenging perceptions and making a difference. Her parents were very supportive and El Moutawakel speaks fondly of her father driving her to the stadium in Bourgogne district of Casablanca, Morocco. He would wait for her and then when she was done, he would take her back home.
In 1978, she competed in her first cross country race, after which she decided to specialize in the sprints and then settled on the 400-meter hurdles races. In 1982, she participated in the African Championships in Athletics, emerging with two gold medals in both the 100m and 400m hurdles, and getting a silver medal for the 100m sprint. Her historic moment came in 1984, which was the first time that the 400m hurdle race was being held in the Olympic Games. In this case, she won the race and ended up being the first Moroccan, African and Muslim woman to win an Olympic gold medal. This also made her the first Moroccan to win a gold medal at the Olympics.
El Moutawakel thus made a big step for Moroccan, Arab and Muslim women in her great achievement. Her victory gave women (more so Moroccan women) the courage and confidence to believe in themselves. They could now take part in activities that bring the community together, in this case sports. The assumption had always been that sports is a preserve of men. Her victory challenged this outlook, and she regards it as her greatest achievement. Her win opened up Moroccan, Arab and Muslim girls to opportunities in the world of sports.
In an unexpected turn of events, El Moutawakel retired from athletics at the age of 25, at a time when she was at the height of her career. She then went to the US to pursue her education. She went back to Morocco with a Master’s degree in Physical Education and Physiotherapy. In 1993, she started a 5km run for women in her hometown, Casablanca, which has grown into the biggest women’s race in a Muslim country. Realizing that she could influence sports better at a decision-making level, she became Morocco’s National Athletics Director, engaged in coaching sprint and hurdle athletes and a member of various national and international committees concerned with sports. She was even appointed the Minister of Youth and Sports in 2007 and served in this position until 2009.
El Moutawakel has also received many awards and honours including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Laureus Association in 2010 and has also been the United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the Millennium Development Goals (2011). Her star continues to rise on the international level since she was elected as the Vice President of the International Olympic Committee in 2017. She is currently the Vice-Chair of the Laureus World Sports Academy.
It is only right to end this post with a quote from the Symbol of Emancipation herself:
“Athletics has taught me more about myself. It has helped me go through all the difficulties and challenges that have made my character, my personality. It is true that sometimes it is not easy to deal with family, work and sports all together. But keeping a certain balance between those three aspects of one’s life is essential for the role that I have to play in our society.“
References and Further Reading
Africa’s 10 Best Female Athletes. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.africa.com/best-female-athletes/
Jalal Bounouar. (2017). Nawal El Moutawakel: The Pride of Africa. Retrieved from https://www.africa.com/nawal-el-moutawakel-pride-africa/
Jalal Bounouar. (2017). Africa’s 10 Best Female Athletes. Retrieved from https://www.africa.com/best-female-athletes/
Ms Nawal EL MOUTAWAKEL – Comité National Olympique Marocain , IOC Member since 1998. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.olympic.org/ms-nawal-el-moutawakel
Nawal El Moutawakel. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.laureus.com/academy/members/nawal-el-moutawakel
By Mwongeli Mutua
African Women in Leadership Narratives 