Children have many different physical activities which they participate in during and after school hours. Sometimes these physical activities are part of the school physical education curriculum, sometimes the parents like to enroll their children in classes or groups to engage in these activities in their free time.
Some such activities are cheerleading and gymnastics. The aim of such activities is to display the participants’ abilities all while putting on a show for an audience. From toddler age to high school, let’s take a look at whether it is haram for children to do cheerleading or gymnastics.
Is it Haram for a Child to do Cheerleading?
Cheerleading is a highly active performance done in front of onlookers in the crowd as everyone watches the main sports performance.
The cheerleaders’ job is to motivate the audience and elevate the spirit of the match all while putting on a display of pleasing cheerleading moves. It involves wearing cheerleading uniforms as well as the use of props such as pom poms.
For older children it can also involve highly skilled acrobatic performances done to please the crowd, such as one cheerleader throwing or catching another, or several cheerleaders climbing on top of each other. The first consideration when it comes to whether children can participate in cheerleading is the clothes that are worn in carrying out this activity.
Children are not required to observe hijab i.e. wear a head covering before the age of onset of menstruation, but they are still required to dress modestly. This means that a Muslim child participating in cheerleading must cover their arms and legs. If possible, the required uniform for the activity can be modified to accommodate this.
The school may be petitioned for the alteration to the child’s uniform on religious grounds, and as such alterations are within reasonable demands, they may usually be met. In elementary and middle school, the children are still not sexually mature, so the children may perform cheerleading routines in front of mixed gatherings.
However, once the age of onset of menstruation has been reached for girls, they must avoid performing in front of crowds which have both men and women in the audience. This means that in order to participate in a high school cheerleading performance, it is preferable that it be an all-girls school where the cheerleaders, the sports athletes and the crowd is all female.
This is because it is not advisable for Muslim girls to put on a display in front of unrelated men. If the mature girls feel like they are more comfortable performing while wearing the hijab head covering, they may do so, though it is not required to do so if the gathering is females only.
The same setup may be carried out for after-school cheerleading clubs, with the consideration kept in mind that if the girls are to carry out their activities outdoors then along with their modest clothing, they should also wear the hijab head covering. Older children can petition to wear modest clothes in order to participate in cheerleading on their own, though for smaller children that duty will fall to the parents.
Another consideration in cheerleading, especially for older kids, is sexualized moves which may be a part of some cheerleading routines. Muslim girls are not allowed to perform anything sexual in nature in a public display. While cheerleading at the school level should remain free from sexual moves, it may still creep in at some point depending on the people involved.
This should be discouraged. Whatever cheerleading moves are active, athletic and appropriate should be used. One more thing to consider is the appropriate training and safety protocols for the more ambitious cheerleading moves. In order to uphold the Islamic standard that life must be protected and safety ensured, only cheerleaders who are well trained for ambitious moves should be allowed to participate in carrying them out.
Less experienced cheerleaders should stick to simpler and easier moves until they acquire further training.
Is it Haram for a Child to do Gymnastics?
Gymnastics is a performance of the person’s flexibility and endurance with regards to certain movements and postures as part of the display. Children participate in gymnastics as part of their school or after-school gym classes.
In order to participate in gymnastics, the child must be modestly dressed. This means that their clothes should cover their arms and legs, though girls who have not yet hit puberty are not required to wear the hijab head covering. While the children have not yet hit puberty, they may do gymnastics with both boys and girls together.
When the age of puberty has been reached, the girls and boys must be separated into different rooms based on gender. If there is any audience for the gymnastics performance, the girls’ audience should only be female. This can be more easily implemented if the girls go to an all-girls school or after-school club. If the gymnastics are being carried out outdoors, the girls who have passed the age of first menstruation should wear the hijab head covering.
If a girls team wants to appear uniform and have all of its members wear hijab regardless of whether they have hit puberty or not, this is also permissible. It is not required for an immature girl to wear the hijab head covering but it is permissible for her to do so if she wishes. In the case of wearing the hijab head covering for gymnastics, a sports hijab is preferable to wear as opposed to one that is draped or pinned up.
This is to make it easier for the girl to move and to carry out gymnastics without fear of her hijab coming unpinned or getting snagged somewhere in the process. There are many quality sports hijabs available in the market or they may be ordered from Amazon.
Once again, it is important to ensure the safety of the participants by matching them to the level of gymnastics they can perform within their abilities. They should only perform what they are safely able to carry out and should not proceed to more difficult levels of gymnastics without adequate training under the supervision of a coach or trainer.
Conclusion
Physical activity is highly encouraged for children and parents desire that they are able to carry it out under the guidelines of Islam. With a few modifications as mentioned above, children can participate in cheerleading and gymnastics at school or after school.
In this way, the children will be able to participate in their physical education as well as remain active and fit in their bodies when they pursue whichever physical activity they like to do.
