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Women’s participation in sports and physical activities lags behind that of men, particularly among members of underrepresented or marginalized groups. Pakistani women from the rural areas of southern Punjab represent one such group. The aim of this study was to examine how traditional sports that are less well-known outside the Indian subcontinent offer opportunities for marginalized Pakistani women from Southern Punjab to participate in physical activities. Following a phenomenological approach, we conducted 16 semi-structured interviews with Kho-Kho and Kabaddi women athletes from underrepresented groups in Pakistan. Elo and Kyngäs’ three-phase content analysis process (preparation, organization and reporting) was used to examine interviews. The results of the study revealed that participants feel constrained by the systematic masculine hegemonic culture institutionalized by Pakistani society and the western sporting paradigm. However, the participants reported a sense of liberation and security via traditional sports. Our study contributes to the limited knowledge about women’s participation in traditional sports beyond the western world.

Extant research on e-sports has focused on the growth and value of the phenomenon, fandom, and participant experiences. However, there is a paucity of e-sports scholarship detailing women’s experiences from marginalized communities living in various conservative Muslim countries. This shortage of literature remains despite different radical Islamic groups’ consistent demand for banning several online video games and the Muslim youth’s resistance to these calls. This study aimed to understand the motives and lived experiences of Muslim women e-sports participants from Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. The authors collected data via observations of online video games and in-depth interviews. The study participants revealed that they use e-sports as a vehicle for an oppositional agency and personal freedom from the patriarchal system. The findings also suggest that participants are facing systematic marginalization and grave intrusion of post-colonization. The study contributes to the limited scholarship concerning Indian subcontinent Muslim women’s e-sports participation.

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