Afghan Female Boxers Challenge Gender Roles

Original article by Nick Meo, SFGate online

Concord resident Tareq Shawl Azim says he always knew he would one day return to his parents' country to make it a better place.

Azim, whose parents left Afghanistan in 1979 after the Soviet invasion, boxed as a heavyweight at Fresno State, and has represented Afghanistan at the Asian Games, South Asian Games and Pan American Games. Azim believes he is an agent of reform by training females to box.

"I wanted to show the world that Afghanistan is ready for positive change through sports and the most male-dominated activity - boxing," he said. "There needs to be belief in all humanity in order for a country like Afghanistan to stand on its two feet. One foot being male and the other being female."

The sight of some 30 determined girls, many clad in head scarves, sparring and shadowboxing, is an extraordinary spectacle in a country where women are routinely harassed for taking part in sports and where some Islamic clerics have spoken out against any female performing in public as an athlete or entertainer.

The idea for the program occurred last year after several female soccer players expressed interest in the sport after watching American women box on television. Later that year, sports officials formed the Afghan Women's Boxing Federation, whose directors say their major obstacle is not conservative males but a shortage of cash. The girls, who train in the cavernous, dingy gymnasium of Kabul's National Stadium that was once the site of Taliban executions, has only four punching bags, three of which are homemade.

As a result, Azim asked Fairtex Gear Inc., a San Francisco company, to contribute boxing equipment. Azim had often trained at the company's downtown boxing ring and is known by the nickname "Pashtun" in reference to the majority ethnic group in Afghanistan.

In Kabul, the female boxers are part of a new generation that grew up with only dim memories of the stifling repression of women by the Taliban government ousted by a U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

"Hit harder, go on, do it," said Shabnam Rahimi, a tiny 15-year-old teen as another girl pounded her outsize boxing gloves.

Shabnam and her sister, Fahima Rahimi, have been tapped as potential members of the national boxing team at the London Olympics in 2012 if women's boxing is approved as an Olympic sport. The Afghan team is expected to be created later this year.

In training, Fahima, 16, wears a modest black head scarf while 15-year-old Shabnam sports a British Union Jack bandana. Fahima hopes to be an airline pilot, and Shabnam says she wants to be a doctor.

"Boxing gives me confidence," Shabnam said. "It is good fun as well. Boxing is not just for boys. Girls can make better boxers, and why shouldn't girls do it? In Afghanistan now, we can do anything."

Both girls say their father didn't like the idea initially. But after meeting with Azim, he relented. All parents are consulted and asked to give permission before any training begins.

As in most countries, most of these teens are from poor neighborhoods. Many have families that have been scarred by past wars. For security reasons, they are picked up twice a week from schools across Kabul by a minibus and driven to the stadium.

"Rich families don't want daughters to be boxers," said Saber Sharify, who trains the girls along with Azim.

Sharify, 48, is Afghanistan's former boxing star. In 1982, he won a silver medal at the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi.

"Afghan women are brave," said Sharify. "Some people say it is very dangerous for girls to do boxing. Others say Afghanistan is not ready for this. These girls are proving those people wrong."

Sharify's family also fled Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion, settling in neighboring Pakistan where he opened a boxing gym in Islamabad. Like Azim, he returned in 2004.

Sharify and Azim say they hope to expand the program later this year to the cities of Jalalabad and Mazar-e-Sharif.

"This is about more than just sport," said Azim. "What you are seeing is social change in action."