--- title: Nike Middle East Ad Features Muslim Women Athletes in Hijabs description: Nike recently released a powerful new ad that prominently features Muslim women athletes exercising and competing in hijabs. canonical: https://time.com/4682139/nike-commercial-women-athletes-hijabs/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-24T19:17:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:41:24.218Z og:title: This Nike Commercial Features Women Getting Active in Hijabs og:description: "What will they say about you?" og:url: https://time.com/4682139/nike-commercial-women-athletes-hijabs/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt893364cffe9be0d1/6988bbd40a4a222bc49cd0c8/nike-hijab-ad.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: A Day With US Fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Nike Commercial Features Women Getting Active in Hijabs twitter:description: "What will they say about you?" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt893364cffe9be0d1/6988bbd40a4a222bc49cd0c8/nike-hijab-ad.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Nike Commercial Features Women Athletes in Hijabs > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=5b05021b-c8de-4586-86c7-ae96bdcd18b4&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Feb 24, 2017 7:17 PM UTC  NEW YORK, NY - JULY 07: American Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad warms up before a training session at the Fencers Club on July 7, 2016 in New York City. Muhammad will be the first Muslim women to represent the United States while wearing a hijab at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) NEW YORK, NY - JULY 07: American Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad warms up before a training session at the Fencers Club on July 7, 2016 in New York City. Muhammad will be the first Muslim women to represent the United States while wearing a hijab at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) Ezra Shaw—Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Feb 24, 2017 7:17 PM UTC [Nike](http://time.com/4583818/black-friday-shoppers-nike-store/) continues their commitment to inclusivity following [their “Equality” initiative](http://fortune.com/2017/02/13/nike-film-embraces-equality/) with a new ad spot that’s gone viral on the Internet. In a powerful new commercial made for Nike Middle East, the brand prominently features [Arab and Muslim women athletes exercising and competing](http://time.com/4361607/veil-modest-workout-clothes-startup/). The clip opens with a women running in a hijab as pedestrians stare at her. The rest of the footage shows women in the suburbs of Dubai running, skateboarding, fencing, boxing, and ice skating bolstered a narrator who says, “what will they say about you? Maybe they’ll say you exceeded all expectations.” The commercial touches on an issue that many women in the Middle East face daily while trying engage in an active and healthy lifestyle, and it even got a shout-out from Sara al-Zawqari, a spokewoman for the International Red Cross in Iraq, who took to her Twitter to voice her support of the clip. > [](https://twitter.com/SaraAlZQ/status/833009082168647680) Watch the full commercial below. > [](https://twitter.com/NikeMiddleEast/status/832802373676331008) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4682139/nike-commercial-women-athletes-hijabs/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4682139/nike-commercial-women-athletes-hijabs/"},"headline":"This Nike Commercial Features Women Athletes in Hijabs","datePublished":"2017-02-24T19:17:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:41:24.218Z","description":"\"What will they say about you?\"","url":"https://time.com/4682139/nike-commercial-women-athletes-hijabs/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Entertainment","Sports topic","Nike","Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt893364cffe9be0d1/6988bbd40a4a222bc49cd0c8/nike-hijab-ad.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt893364cffe9be0d1/6988bbd40a4a222bc49cd0c8/nike-hijab-ad.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A Day With US Fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad","caption":"A Day With US Fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad","creditText":"Ezra Shaw—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4682139/nike-commercial-women-athletes-hijabs/","name":"This Nike Commercial Features Women Athletes in Hijabs"}}]}] ```