(Toronto Star) When Shireen Ahmed saw the sleek, silver Raptors’ logo on a hijab for the first time, she got chills.
After learning of the release of the Toronto Raptors’ Nike Pro Hijab — announced Friday morning through a video on the team’s Twitter account — “the 12-year-old Shireen in me screamed with joy,” said Ahmed, a 42-year-old sportswriter, podcaster and longtime athlete.
The Raptors-branded sports hijab, the first of its kind in the NBA, has been in the works since the playoffs this past spring, said Jerry Ferguson, senior director of marketing at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment.
The inspiration to release the hijab came from the Hijabi Ballers, Ferguson said, referring to a group of young Muslim women in Toronto who play basketball every Sunday, and advocate for increased participation of Muslim women in sports.
