The Muslim Woman

Sound of thumping feet, the warming up sessions, dust flying into the air as members of a team pace round and round, followed by a ‘ritual’ of wearing boxing gloves, targeting punch bags. Doesn’t it seem as if some squad is preparing for a league of boxing? But wait there’s a bit alternation in here, women constitute ‘the team’ and astonishing part in the whole scenario is that, the place is Afghanistan. Astonishment yes! Nation where women are not allowed to take a single step without seeking permission are preparing themselves for such kind of situation indeed is a matter of bewilderment. Fraternity of new generation is fully equipped to explode the stereotypical notion of Afghan women, who were regarded nothing more than ‘shadowy figures’ concealed from head to foot behind powder-blue burqas. The fitness center, where these women are having this workout is in fact situated in a football stadium, which was quite a ‘fame’ during the Taliban years, as it was a place especially demarcated for carrying out public executions, including women. Idea behind such sessions is to give native women the much desired respect and to retrieve boxing as a sport in the strife torn country by making martial arts constructive than destructive, personifying it as ‘fighting for peace’. The boxers are in their late teens upon asking, one of them said that from recreational point of view, they are into it while there are others who want to take it as their lifelong profession. People who are working behind the scene are expecting to unite the Province which has been disintegrated by the ongoing conflict that keeps the nation ‘occupied’ in its own way. If you get involved in sport then you stay out of war. In the past there was war between different peoples in Afghanistan, but a sport like boxing brings people together. It’s not fighting. It’s a competition. It’s good to hear that women too are showing a positive response by indulging themselves in such sports. It’ll be instrumental in taking away the element of shyness from them making them more assertive and authoritative which they actually need in reality. Only then they may fight against the ‘jungle rule’ of male chauvinistic society. Go on ladies! Via: BBC