In Massachusetts high school basketball, there is one number nobody has touched in 17 years: 3,070.
That is how many points Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir scored for New Leadership Charter School in Springfield between 2004 and 2009. She did it wearing a hijab. And as of the state records list updated this May, it is still the most points any Massachusetts high school player has ever scored. Boy or girl.
Seventeen years later, the girl from Springfield is a mother, an author, a speaker and the founder of a sports movement for Muslim girls. This month her hometown called her back: she was booked as the luncheon keynote at the RiseUp conference at the MassMutual Center on Oct. 8. It is a good moment to remember what she did here, and why it still matters for every Muslim kid in Massachusetts who loves a game.
A 5-foot-4 guard who could not be stopped
Abdul-Qaadir is the youngest of eight children, and she had her own hoop by age three. She started playing varsity in eighth grade at New Leadership, a tiny charter school that, as the New England Basketball Journal noted in 2025, no longer exists and once operated out of a trailer. Her home gym was the Rebecca M. Johnson elementary school.
She reached 1,000 career points as a freshman. As a senior she averaged around 42 points a game. In February 2009, she passed Rebecca Lobo, the Southwick legend who went on to star at UConn, the Olympics and the WNBA, to become the state's all-time leading scorer. In the game just before, she scored 38 of her team's 51 points at the Hoophall Classic in front of Lobo and UConn coach Geno Auriemma.
Her final total of 3,070 still sits at the top of the list, about 360 points ahead of Lobo's 2,710. She also holds the state's single-season record, 878 points in 2009. That year she was named the Gatorade Massachusetts girls basketball player of the year.
The hijab made her easy to spot, and not always in a good way. In a 2025 interview with the New England Basketball Journal, she remembered inbounding the ball as a sophomore at a game in Holyoke when a fan shouted that she looked like Osama bin Laden's niece. "Clearly I'm here just to play basketball," she said.
She kept playing. "Springfield was a small community, but basketball was our love," she told the Journal, "and basketball was a way out for most of the inner-city kids."
First in the NCAA, then a wall
Abdul-Qaadir chose the University of Memphis, which won her over in part by talking about nearby mosques, halal food on campus and professors who taught Arabic. In 2009 she was invited to a White House iftar with President Barack Obama. After tearing her ACL as a freshman, she played three seasons for Memphis and became the first woman to play NCAA Division I basketball in a hijab. She finished at Indiana State, where she was named the Missouri Valley Conference's Outstanding Newcomer and first-team All-MVC.
Then came the wall. She planned to play professionally overseas, but FIBA, the sport's international federation, banned religious head coverings in games. "I had to choose between my faith and the sport that I love. And I questioned wearing my scarf," she told NPR. "I questioned being Muslim at the time."
She chose her faith. Then she fought. Together with other athletes who cover, she pressured FIBA through petitions and social media campaigns for years. In 2017, FIBA changed the rule, and religious head coverings are now allowed on the court. By then it was too late for her own pro career. Her story became the 2019 documentary "Life Without Basketball," which the New England Basketball Journal says is free to watch on YouTube.
From the bench to a movement
Instead of walking away from the game, she turned toward the girls coming next. In 2015 she founded Muslim Girls Hoop Too, which runs clinics and camps for Muslim girls. Its summer retreat, Ballin' In Faith, combines a sports tournament with faith-based workshops, and the Journal reported it had grown to more than 90 participants by 2025.
"We get to pray together. We get to share stories that are relatable," she said. "We all have on hijab, and most of them are wearing long pants and long sleeves, so you're not just a complete standout."
She also co-wrote a picture book with Judith Henderson, "Lion on the Inside: How One Girl Changed Basketball," published by Kids Can Press in 2023 and illustrated by Katherine Ahmed. School Library Journal gave it a starred review. It is written for kids ages 5 to 8, and it is a great one to borrow from your local library.
At RiseUp in Springfield, her keynote was titled "From the Bench to the Movement: Transforming Pain Into a Platform for Change." The organizers shared her words ahead of the event: "For the first time in my life, I was really tested. I couldn't play professionally, so I had to make a decision." And: "I want people to understand that we belong in every space."
What it means for Muslim athletes in Massachusetts today
The rules have caught up with Bilqis. Since the 2021-22 season, national high school basketball rules no longer require a player to get state approval before wearing a religious head covering, as long as it is soft and fits securely. A Muslim girl trying out for her school team this winter can simply show up and play.
That change did not come from nowhere. It came from athletes like Abdul-Qaadir, who kept showing up in a hijab until the rulebook had to make room.
So if you have a daughter, a niece or a little sister who lives on the court, show her the documentary. Read her the book. And tell her that the highest scorer in Massachusetts history, out of every boy and girl who has ever played, wore a hijab and came from Springfield.
Sources: MaxPreps Massachusetts girls basketball state records (updated May 2026); MaxPreps (Feb. 4, 2009); New England Basketball Journal (July 29, 2025); NPR; Wikipedia; Kids Can Press; Helix Human Services RiseUp 2026 program; RiseUp Springfield (Sept. 2026); NFHS basketball rules changes 2021-22.