Manal Rostom is an Arab woman who has shown strength in every sense of the word. As she established herself as the first Egyptian hijabi to climb Mount Kilimanjaro – the highest mountain in Africa, Mount Elbrus – the highest mountain in Europe, and most recently, the first hijabi Arab woman to climb Mount Everest, Rostom has emerged through social and cultural barriers by showing that a hijab is not one of them.
Born on October 30, 1979 by Egyptian parents, Rostom spent her formative years in Kuwait and grew up feeling like she lacked an identity as a “third culture kid.” At only 16 years old, she decided to go to her home country so she set off for Alexandria, Egypt where she finished high school and eventually attained her bachelor’s and master’s degree in pharmacy.
At 21 years old, Rostom made the personal choice of wearing the hijab after a car accident that involved the death of her cousin. This experience changed her worldview and encouraged her to be a more devoted Muslim. Since deciding to be a hijabi, she has been told by many people about the obstacles she would face, but Manal Rostom was determined to wear the headscarf. Rostom moved back to Kuwait with her parents after feeling like she didn’t belong in Egypt, and eventually moved to Dubai, UAE.
Since beginning her adventure in 2009 by climbing Mount St. Catherine. Rostom has realized that veiled women have additional challenges in the athletic world. More often than not, she would be the only woman to wear the hijab on expeditions. Rostom is pushed to excel and to surpass people’s expectations and biases by the goal of changing the world’s view on Muslim women.
After almost wanting to take off the hijab in 2014, Manal Rostom decided to found a support group on Facebook with the slogan “Surviving Hijab.” What originally started with 80 handpicked girls has now boomed to over 1,000,000 members and has been awarded Facebook’s community leadership fellowship award. For Rostom, the group is a safe haven for women where they can open up about their struggles and support each other through them.
Rostom’s fervent activism related to sports and the hijab has led her to being recognized by Nike in 2015, and was chosen to represent hijabi women everywhere by appearing in a Nike advert wearing a hijab. Rostom has continued working with the sportswear company after becoming the global face of the Nike Pro Hijab in March 2017, and has since been featured in an audio guided run on the global Nike Run Club app in 2018. Manal Rostom understands the gravity of being featured on Nike as a hijabi. According to her, “To have an international, cosmopolitan, mainstream giant brand like Nike come out in times where Trump is freaking the whole world out from Muslims … well it's a big deal.”
Rostom has an impressive roster of mountains conquered such as Mount Kenya ni 2013, Mount Elbrus in 2015, and Mount Himalaya in 2016. In 2019, Manal Rostom reached the highest point in her career yet (quite literally!), after successfully climbing Mount Everest with 13 other women. The team was composed of 14 women with 11 different nationalities aged between 17 and 40. Together, their team wanted to promote equality and inclusivity of all women which is why they raised the Surviving Hijab flag together after reaching the top.
“We can all get tired the same, we sweat the same, we struggle the same. It doesn’t matter whether you cover [your hair] or not. We were 14 girls from 11 countries, not all of us Arabs, not all wearing the hijab, and that is what I wanted to deliver.”
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