Zarauztarra Nagore Martínez (Zarautz, 1990) studied Physical Activity and Sport Sciences in Vitoria-Gasteiz (UPV/EHU). He took a master's degree in Research in Physical Activity and Sport Sciences and began investigating the meaning of physical activity in prison for detained women. He did so under the direction of Oidui Usabiaga from the UPV/EHU and Daniel Martos from the University of Valencia.

She enrolled in the PhD Program in Physical Activity and Sport Sciences to continue the work started. In 2015 he received the Predoctoral Scholarship from the Basque Government and in July 2018 defended his international doctoral thesis: "The meanings of Physical Activity and Sport in jail: the voices of prisoners."

He worked in the Federation of Adapted Sport in the coordination of the Project "Inclusive School Sport". In December 2018, he began to make replacements at the UPV/EHU and currently, within the Department of Didactics of Physical Expression, Music and Plastic of the Faculty of Education of Bilbao.

Women in prison and physical activity. That is what he has had to investigate in his thesis.

Yes, it's actually a pretty unusual subject in our field of knowledge, but with the work, we wanted to respond to a desire to investigate the social impact that physical activity and sport can have. In a specific scenario: incarcerated women.

I made a sport intervention in a children's centre and led me to think that physical activity and sport, in a situation of deprivation of freedom and freedom, could have different meaning and influence. It seemed to me to be a suitable theme for the final master's work, but adding a variable: that of gender. When I put the words prison and physical activity together, it is the image of man that comes to mind and I was clear that I wanted to delve into the reality of women. On the one hand, because we know very little about this issue, and on the other, because it considered that being sport and androcentric jails, women needed special attention.

I was very lucky because I went into a working group that had to start researching the topic. There were Oidui Usabiaga and Daniel Martos as directors, and Nerian Martin was about to start a PhD.

How many incarcerated women have you experienced? What has the process been like?

In the in-depth interviews that have completed the results of the doctoral dissertation, the voices of 16 women who have lived in prison have been collected. Investigating about jail is not an easy task. On the one hand there is the strength of the prison itself and on the other there is the stigma it has in society. In addition, women are a minority of people imprisoned and if we add to this the practice of physical activity and sport in prison and the desire to participate in an investigation on the subject… what to say!

Our first intention was to conduct the investigation in prison, but in view of the impossibility of obtaining consent we had to use another strategy to obtain information: to interview the women who were not in prison at the time. To this end, we contacted associations working with ex-prisoners. Through them we achieved the first interviewees and then we went to get the rest of the interviewees thanks to the "snowball".

The process of dialogue has been slow, but it has been very enriching. Personally, it has given me the opportunity to meet different women and I have learned a lot with them. And of course, without your testimony, it wouldn't have been possible to conduct any research, so once again, thank you very much.

You have collected testimonies from women in the thesis. Many underline the benefits of physical activity and sport during prison.

The profile of the women interviewed was different. The interviews were conducted outside prison and interviewed women in the third grade who had already served their sentences. The origin of women incarcerated has also been different, but all those who served their sentences in prisons managed by the Spanish State did so with the exception of one woman interviewed.

In the interviews we concluded that physical activity had brought them certain benefits and we classified them into five groups: social, psychological, physical, transformation and micro-resistance benefits.

As for social relations, women assured that it helped them "to choose friends in a place where they had not been elected". They told us that among them, new networks of relationships were created, that while doing physical activity and sport, other types of relationships and conversations were created.

Physical activity and sport helped some women combat depression and family separation due to psychological benefits. Also to escape the chaos and confusion of the prison and immerse yourself in your thoughts. They said they managed to mentally escape the sentence and the prison.

They said that it also produced physical benefits: that it helped to release negative energies or tension, to lose weight or to be more toned... In short, some felt healthier.

In terms of transformation, physical activity and sport helped some to face life in freedom by leaving behind prison: to immerse themselves in a sport and create new networks of relationships, to move away from drugs or to follow the interest generated in prison and to train professionally in it.

Finally, physical activity and sport have also emerged as weapons of "micro-resistance" in the research study. The daily life of the prison is based on a permanent power negotiation and it has been seen how women used it strategically to deal with the prison and improve its situation. They knew, for example, that prison surveillance evaluated "well" the practice of physical activity and sport, and used it to obtain "points" in their reports for changes in permits or degrees. In the same way, the sports club became a privileged space to pass messages between the prisoners or for the trapezians.

One of the women has also defined it as a "healthy drug", which helped her to spend time faster and also escaped from reality. Physical activity as a tool to accelerate the passage of time has appeared repeatedly in the interviews. Condemnation, being no more than time, made some of them more punishable.

But it also has difficulties.

Yes, and not little! In the research, we identified them as external and internal barriers.

Regarding external obstacles, the first obstacle was the institution itself, its rigidity: schedules, permits, updating lists, possibilities of movement, degree of sanctions... among others. The distance between the module and the sports club may be small, but the accesses, keys, permissions, will of someone who opens the doors... It's often not that easy to find him in jail. On the other hand, the prison regime does not seem to promote physical activity and sport for women in detention. One woman told us that at the time of the men's nap, they would go out to the sports center to "not take away space" for the men.

In the internal obstacles, however, there were, among other things, age, lack of motivation and lack of knowledge. In addition, with the feeling of being constantly monitored, some felt embarrassed or persecuted. They also commented that sports support was associated more with liking than with physical activity. This once again demonstrates the sexist connotation of the Tesguoroa environment. The conclusions of this study coincide with other studies: the group of women in prison is the one who least participates in physical and sports activity.

Being a woman is also a handicap when it comes to physical activity and sport in prison.

Yes. As some feminist researchers have pointed out, jails are androcentric and are another institution that constructs gender. A patriarchal relationship of power is established in daily life, so women live in a situation of constant discrimination. This is a structural problem of which physical activity and sport are a reflection.

Prisoners are considered to need more physical activity and sport and sexist thinking is maintained. In this sense, one interviewee compared the need for physical activity with sexuality. Prison surveillance considered that it was natural for men to have these "needs" and that women did not need them.

Architecture also shows it. In mixed jails, the size of female patios is often almost half that of men. This limits the mobility of women. In addition, they offer stereotyped workshops related to traditional femininity in prisons. An interviewee explained to us that a colleague had asked the prison director shovel and ball and the director reminded him that he had the sewing machine in the yard. The interviewee assured that nothing could change if the way of thinking did not change.

Is physical activity and sport promoted in prisons? Is there still something to improve?

It must be borne in mind that each prison is a different reality. However, according to the results and analysis of our investigations, few attempts to promote physical activity and sport have been detected in some prisons, particularly in women's prisons. In mixed jails, however, the supply is centred on men and on women, the difference is often not given prominence. There is therefore much to be improved and done, and the first step is to listen to the interests and needs of women.

However, we must not forget that prison is a prison and that sport often acquires an excessively romantic vision, as if it were all solved. While it is true that physical activity can generate some benefits, the first thing to do is to look at structural problems. In this way, physical activity can be a travel partner, relieving the reintegration process or making the prison more bearable.

He completed his thesis at the UPV/EHU and at the University of Valencia.

My director and my director were known beforehand. They have a good relationship and Daniel made his thesis about the meaning of physical activity in jail was a good excuse to make an interuniversity thesis.

The experience has been very good because throughout the process the directors have also been impressive. Although Valencia is a little farther away, every year we have met through a conference or other topic, meanwhile the meeting through skype and the corrections sent by email have caressed the distance.

This has allowed us to know and strengthen ties with the research group of the University of Valencia. The truth is, it's interesting to see how other universities in the same field operate. I believe that a great deal can be learned from this type of exchange.

He participated in the Thyothesis. How did you experience the experience?

The truth is that it was very nice, I had a good time and it was interesting to see what kind of work is done in our environment. All this in Basque as well. It seems to me to be an interesting project and from here I would also like to thank you for creating these kinds of spaces. Short-term projects you have at hand...

We would like to focus on some aspects that were not further elaborated on the thesis, on the physical activity and sports experiences of the detained women drug users and on the sense of freedom that the fact of acting in prison gave. That's what we have in our hands ... We will see how it ends!