Shifting policies of sport from welfare and health to civic integration and national security: The political debate about swimming sessions targeting Muslim minority ethnic women

For many years, swimming sessions targeting Muslim minority ethnic women in Denmark have been supported by both private and public funding. Population statistics and reports show that this popu-lation group is particularly physically inactive, and women-only swimming sessions are very popular. In 2016, however, discussions about women-only swimming sessions surfaced in the public and polit-ical debate in Denmark. This paper focuses on the political debate in the city council of Aarhus Mu-nicipality that lasted for almost a year and led to a ban of women-only swimming activities during public opening hours of the municipality’s indoor swimming facilities. The debate arose from a pro-posal by city councillors, who described women-only swimming activities as leisure practices imped-ing social integration into the Danish society and contributing to the development of a parallel soci-ety in socially deprived areas in Aarhus. The paper shows how welfare and health policy arguments about the importance of Danish Muslim women’s well-being and engagement in sports and physical activity were waning in the debate. The same applied to the political will to support this group like other physically inactive groups through special initiatives. Further, the political debate illustrates a move from a broad political belief in sports being a tool of integration per se to regulating sports as civic integration and linking to national security politics.