The leader of a project aiming to help Muslim girls challenge stereotypes has discussed her work trying to make sport more accessible.

Maryam Abdullah, 25, is the project manager for Muslim Girls Fence (MGF), a collaboration between the charity Maslaha and British Fencing.

As part of Newham Council’s Year of the Young Person, Maryam explained her work and giving back to the borough.

MGF makes fencing accessible to Muslim girls and uses it to challenge perceptions.

Maryam said: ”We specifically chose fencing because most people have not tried this sport and learning to fence places everyone on a level playing field.”

MGF has also focused on the impacts of racism and Islamophobia on young Muslim women’s mental health and wellbeing.

It has explored the link between sport and wellbeing, how physical activity increases good mental health and how it can contribute to poor mental health when certain groups in society are excluded.

It is also promoting change for all to fit in and running workshops about imagining spaces and futures where Muslim girls and women feel welcome to use sporting facilities and create their own.

Maryam added: “We know that just adding a hijab to sports clothes won’t change everything.

"The now and future is about listening to the life experience of Muslim women, about creating a willingness and openness of those who ‘control’ sporting environments, and then adapting spaces to communities’ broader needs.”

Next month MGF will launch a report looking at how structural inequalities impact pupils' mental health and wellbeing.

Maryam also runs London book club #BecauseWeveRead (BWR).

It is a movement to promote participants to think differently about the world around them by ensuring discussions involve those who are not often invited to speak.

Maryam said: “This is more than reading texts, what’s different is who turns up and what they want to talk about and how their subject matter creates ripples.

"New conversations we may discuss include how Muslims are stereotyped by the media and the history behind that, or life experiences of migrants, the global politics that cause these movements.

"It’s another type of education but conversations that our education system often struggles to raise in schools.”

Maryam is inviting Newham secondary schools to introduce Muslim Girls Fence.

To contact her, email maryam@maslaha.org.