Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir had a dream of playing professional basketball when she was a child shooting hoops in Mahassachusetts.

Coming to the basketball court, she had a fiery passion with undefeatable spirit which eventually forced an end to FIBA’s ban on hijabs.

Hoping to inspire others to play sport, the founder of Dribbling Down Barriers job created a program to promote diversity and inclusion in basketball.

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The summer camp, held at the Universal Academy of Florida in Tampa, runs July 26-30 and targets girls grades 4th-12th.

“I had to stand and be strong for these young girls,” Abdul-Qaader told Tampa Bay Times.

“Especially the Muslim girls who are going to come after me and play any type of sport.”

Abdul-Qaadir is considered as one of the best women’s basketball players to emerge from Massachusetts.

She holds the Massachusetts all-time scoring record for women’s high school basketball and was the first Muslim woman to play at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) collegiate basketball.

In 2019, the Athena Film Festival in New York showed a documentary that chronicles the fight of the American Muslim basketballer Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir against FIBA’s ban on hijabs.