A Muslim women’s youth club has been given the King’s Award for its community work in sports.
KRIMMZ, based in Bolton, is a club breaking down barriers to Muslim women’s participation in sports.
These barriers often include equipment costs, transport, cultural expectations, modesty norms and a lack of female only spaces.
Khadija Patel, founder of KRIMMZ Girls Youth Club, said: “Representation is very important to us, and we want it to be normalised that there are women in a hijab that play cricket, or go cycling, and we want the community to see that.
“We’re in 2026, and we’re still having these conversations, why is it not normal for our society to accept that women will cycle? Or women will teach basketball at the weekend, and that’s absolutely fine.”
Consisting of around fifty volunteers and welcoming women of all ages, the primary aim of KRIMMZ is to provide accessible spaces, while addressing the stigma around participation for Muslim women.
Khadija said: “There’s still a stigma for Muslim women, and that’s why I’m so passionate about this work, it’s important, and it needs to be done.
“We know that Muslim women need female only sessions, and society might not normally have that available.”
The King’s award is the highest accolade that can be given to community groups in the UK, for their work providing the support the club offer to ethnically diverse communities through sport.
A Muslimah Sports Association Report from 2025 only shows why this work is necessary, with Muslim women being two thirds more likely to identify as inactive, and 97% of British Muslim women wanting to increase their physical activity.
One barrier is that religious and cultural needs aren’t catered for in mainstream sports facilities, or in schools.
Khadija said: “There are barriers for participation, we know that Muslim women need female-only sessions, and society might not normally have that available.
“Places might put on female only swimming sessions, but they have a male lifeguard, and that doesn’t work, it needs to be a female lifeguard, and having access to these coaches, instructors, lifeguards, it’s not always possible.
“There will be breaks for prayer times, we’re sensitive towards fasting, so we take all of these aspects into consideration, and it’s because societies and organisations aren’t aware of how to do it.
“It has a huge impact because these women wouldn’t normally get that opportunity, so having Krimmz here, it allows them to be in these spaces and have their voice heard, because we make sure that any sessions we do are all designed by them.”
The cost of activities, however, is the main barrier for Muslim women’s participation in sport.
According to a 2025 survey, children’s sporting activities cost parents £443 on average a year, a cost which is often untenable to lower socio-economic households.
Sahiba Majeed, data and insight manager at the Muslim Sports Foundation, said there are “place and facility barriers” that lower participation amongst Muslim communities.
Majeeb said: “Historically, most Muslim communities live in deprived areas, and face a lack of opportunities because of this.”
KRIMMZ aim is breaking down financial barriers in those deprived areas, and allowing women to participate in activities regardless of cost.
A recent success the youth club had was their heavily popular swimming lessons, an activity often restricted by both money and cultural norms.
Access Sport recently granted the club modest swimwear to allow Muslim Women at KRIMMZ to partake in lessons.
Khadija said: “We don’t want clothing to be a barrier for someone to swim, or to be physically active, so getting this support makes a huge difference.
“Swimming gear is expensive anyway, and then modest swimwear is even more expensive, so getting that support makes a huge difference.
“Woman always die over the swimming lessons too, because it’s female led, with a female teacher, and with a female lifeguard.”
The clubs entirely self-sustainable in its aim to break down barriers, training its participants to lead sessions, and empowering people to better their own community.
Having women leading sessions is not just important to KRIMMZ, but crucial in promoting inclusivity, visibility and keeping going, showing the women they too can achieve this.
To KRIMMZ, age doesn’t matter, and breaking down barriers for women to get involved in sports stretches across generations.
Khadija said: “Our younger programmes start from the age of five, and our eldest participant, I think she’s seventy, she’s a grandma!
“We’ve also got a 62-year-old who we trained through Paddleboard UK to become an instructor because, and that’s what we want, we want them to participate, but we want them to deliver sessions, so we encourage them to become instructors.”
To Khadija, the main objective of KRIMMZ is to provide a safe, accessible space for women of all ages to take part on sports.
It provides much needed support for underrepresented communities, and caters for those that are often overlooked for the sporting opportunities.
Khadija said: “Visibility is so important to us, so that if people see others doing it, they might feel inspired themselves.
“We just need to normalise it.”