--- title: Rio 2016 Olympics: Women Egypt Volleyball Team Wears Hijab description: In their first Olympic appearance in the sport, Egypt's women's beach volleyball team sported long sleeves and a hijab to compete. canonical: https://time.com/4443905/rio-olympics-2016-volleyball/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-08T21:39:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:35:14.430Z og:title: Egyptian Women's Volleyball Team Wore Hijab on the Sand og:description: It was Egypt's first time competing in event og:url: https://time.com/4443905/rio-olympics-2016-volleyball/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3d9a29e035b01fdd/6988a199a988cacbec6b9034/egyptian-volleyball-hijab-sleeves.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Beach Volleyball - Olympics: Day 2 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Egyptian Women's Volleyball Team Wore Hijab on the Sand twitter:description: It was Egypt's first time competing in event twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3d9a29e035b01fdd/6988a199a988cacbec6b9034/egyptian-volleyball-hijab-sleeves.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Egyptian Women's Volleyball Team Competed in Hijab For Their First Olympic Game  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Aug 8, 2016 9:39 PM UTC  Doaa Elghobashy of Egypt reacts during the Women's Beach Volleyball preliminary round Pool D match against Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst of Germany on Day 2 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Beach Volleyball Arena on August 7, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images) Doaa Elghobashy of Egypt reacts during the Women's Beach Volleyball preliminary round Pool D match against Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst of Germany on Day 2 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Beach Volleyball Arena on August 7, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)Shaun Botterill—Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Aug 8, 2016 9:39 PM UTC Egypt made their first [Olympic appearance](http://time.com/4443740/rio-olympics-2016-360-degree-video/) in women’s [beach volleyball](http://time.com/4442022/rio-2016-olympics-beach-volleyball-copacabana/) on Sunday since the sport was added to the games in 1996 and the athletes of the moment, Doaa El-Ghobashy and Nada Meawad of Egypt, wore uniforms that upheld both their culture and their love of volleyball. The pair competed in long-sleeves and long-pants in observance of Egypt’s [Islamic culture of modesty](http://time.com/4350110/yuna-modest-clothing-hijab-liberating/), a significant contrast to the bikini-style uniforms that has long been associated with the sport; Elghobashy also sported a hijab covering her hair, which was permitted after a last-minute decision from the International Volleyball Federation following a request by African Volleyball Confederation chairperson Amr Elmany. “I have worn the hijab for 10 years,” Elghobasy told the [_Associated Press_](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/4b68785dcb7a4170977d14da9f45bbdf/egyptian-beach-player-hijab-wont-keep-me-sport) after Egypt lost to Germany in the first round. “It doesn’t keep me away from the things I love to do, and beach volleyball is one of them.” The uniform diversity follows a change in regulations leading up to the London 2012 Olympic games as a part of an effort to be more culturally sensitive. “Many of these countries have religious and cultural requirements, so the uniform needed to be more flexible,” International Volleyball Federation spokesman Richard Baker told the AP. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4443905/rio-olympics-2016-volleyball/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4443905/rio-olympics-2016-volleyball/"},"headline":"Egyptian Women's Volleyball Team Competed in Hijab For Their First Olympic Game","datePublished":"2016-08-08T21:39:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:35:14.430Z","description":"Egypt's first time competing since 1996","url":"https://time.com/4443905/rio-olympics-2016-volleyball/","keywords":["Newsfeed","entertainment","Summer Olympics","2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics","Rio 2016 Olympics","Sports"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3d9a29e035b01fdd/6988a199a988cacbec6b9034/egyptian-volleyball-hijab-sleeves.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/blt3d9a29e035b01fdd/6988a199a988cacbec6b9034/egyptian-volleyball-hijab-sleeves.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Beach Volleyball - Olympics: Day 2","caption":"Beach Volleyball - Olympics: Day 2","creditText":"Shaun Botterill—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/4443905/rio-olympics-2016-volleyball/","name":"Egyptian Women's Volleyball Team Competed in Hijab For Their First Olympic Game"}}]}] ```