Zainab Alema: The hijab-wearing bulldozer rewriting England’s rugby story

LEICESTER (MNTV) – When Zainab Alema first told her father she had fallen in love with rugby, his response was blunt: it was a male sport, a man’s sport, an elitist sport. 

Today, he shares every article about her in the family group chats.

That quiet transformation — in her father, in her sport, in the spaces she occupies — is precisely what Alema is after, as reported by the Irish Examiner. 

A black Muslim woman, mother, grassroots rugby advocate, and former neonatal nurse, Alema made history when she became the first Muslim woman in a hijab to play and score in England’s top-tier women’s Premiership, pulling on the Leicester Tigers jersey against Gloucester-Hartpury. The try was more than a personal triumph.

“I made sure I didn’t wear my scrum cap,” she recalls while talking to Irish Examiner. 

“I made sure I walked onto the pitch in my sports hijab so people can see that there’s a Muslim woman on the pitch.”

She had no idea what rugby even was until two female PE teachers introduced her to it at school — a detail she considers significant. “To have two women who are PE teachers who influenced me getting into sport is huge,” she says, in a game still widely seen as male-dominated.

Her nickname on the pitch is ‘Bulldozer’ — self-chosen, and deliberately metaphorical. “It’s not just about breaking things and smashing things, it’s about building things and paving the way for something bigger and better.” She describes three ingredients to the bulldozer mindset: being bold, being brave, and being yourself.

The impact is already rippling outward. After her debut, young fathers approached her to say their daughters had seen her on television. “That’s the impact I want to make,” she says. “I want to inspire young girls and young boys — anyone, really.”

Her ultimate ambition is straightforward: to represent England at the very top of the game — hijab and all.