MAPLE GROVE, Minnesota —
Ice crystals clung to the eyelashes, parka hood, beanie hat and headscarf of Ruqayah Nasser as she took a break after her first-ever snow tubing runs in a Minnesota park on a -18 Celsius January morning.
She had joined two dozen other members of a group founded by a Somali-American mother in Minneapolis to promote all-seasons activities among Muslim women, who might otherwise feel singled out in the great outdoors, especially when wearing hijabs.
“They understand my lifestyle. I don’t have to explain myself,” said Nasser, who recently moved to the Twin Cities from Chicago and whose family hails from Yemen. “My religion is everything. It’s my survival kit.”
As one of the most visible signs of the Muslim faith, hijabs often attract controversy. Within Islam, some women want to wear the headscarves for piety and modesty, while others oppose them as a symbol of oppression. In the sports world, including in the last Olympics, devout athletes have often faced extra hurdles on and off the field in finding accommodations for religious practices.
Concerned about safety as a woman — particularly one wearing a head covering — but determined to get outdoors to beat seasonal depression, Nasrieen Habib put out a social media post about creating a hiking group three years ago.
From the nine women who responded, her Amanah Rec Project has grown to more than 700 members. There’s a core group for Muslim women only — for “more sisterhood and modesty,” Habib says — as well as a group for families. In addition to weekly outings, they organize longer trips and education on everything from appropriate winter clothing — a challenge for many migrant communities — to health and environmental sustainability from the perspective of Islam.
“It’s a way to live your whole life according to a set of beliefs and rules. And part of those beliefs and rules is taking care of creation,” Habib said as her 4-year-old son took a break from tubing in a toasty chalet at Elm Creek Park Reserve near Minneapolis. “How can we be more sustainable in a time where we see the impact of climate change, especially impacting people who look like us in the Global South?”
Nawal Hirsi, right, goes snow tubing with her family as part of a group promoting outdoors activities by Muslim women, at Elm Creek Park Reserve in Maple Grove, Minn., on Jan. 4, 2025.
Two sisters, Ruun Mahamud and Nawal Hirsi, moved to the United States from Somalia as children about two decades ago.
They found a safe haven in Minnesota where, since the late 1990s, growing numbers of East African refugees have created an increasingly vocal Muslim community. Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar was the first lawmaker to wear a hijab while on the U.S. House floor, and Minneapolis was the first large city in the United States to allow the Islamic call to prayer to be broadcast publicly by its two dozen mosques.