Post by Dee Williams on Apr 4, 2006 16:54:57 GMT -5
Another Forum thread recently mentioned the issue of women's boxing in Muslim countries. Here's an item on that topic with a special twist ... these Muslim amateur boxers are in Israel ...
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2119212,00.html
From Stephen Farrell in Umm al-Fahm
Boxers are not short of opponents, be they suspicious Israelis or critical clerics
AT ONE end of a gym in this hilltop town in northern Israel Riham Agabaria jams a headguard over her white hijab in readiness for another training session. Next week the 15-year-old must defend her national title.
At the other end Riham’s 13-year-old sister, Fatima, thuds rights and lefts into a punchbag, her slim frame concealed by the modesty-protecting garments in which Arab girls are permitted to box.
It is hard for any boxer to become a champion, but for this unlikely pair the obstacles are even greater.
As female boxers they attract the disapproval of some Islamic leaders, and astonished stares from Israelis. As Israeli Arabs they and their brother Amar face the scorn of fellow Arabs abroad. Amar, another Israeli amateur boxing champion, recently approached his Algerian opponents at an international match hand outstretched. He was rebuffed by his fellow Arabs, who mistook him for the Zionist enemy.
“It took 15 minutes to explain I’m an Arab and Muslim but only one listened. The rest just walked off,” he complained.
The talented Agabaria siblings have the best of teachers. As they sweat through a 90-minute training session the man with the stopwatch shouting “faster, faster” is their father Taufiq, a former champion who now runs the club.
At the end of the session Riham and Fatima go at each other full pelt, headscarves flying below their helmets.
“I wanted to box. My father didn’t push me into it,” Fatima insists afterwards. “It isn’t something disgraceful for women and it’s a kind of self-defence.”
Her sister, who was inspired by Muhammad Ali’s daughter Layla and the Briton Prince Naseem, agrees. “It gives you confidence and keeps you in shape,” Riham chips in before readjusting the pins in her headscarf and dashing off with friends.
They need that confidence, for ignorance and discrimination are facts of life for Israel’s 1.35 million Arabs. They are regarded as pariahs by many Arabs for living in the Jewish state, and complain of being second-class citizens within it.
In last week’s general election the Yisrael Beitenu (Israel, Our Home) party led by Avigdor Lieberman secured 11 seats with a pledge to throw 500,000 of Israel’s Arab citizens out of the country, including the population of Umm al-Fahm.
The girl boxers have also had to confront prejudice from within their own community. “One sheikh declared it haraam (religiously prohibited) in a local newspaper last year,” said their father. “But we have the backing of the mayor so no one has ever dared to stop us.”
The Israel Boxing Association, whose website bears the slogan “Boxing is the bridge for co-existence”, has 2,000 members, of which nearly 70 per cent are Arabs and many of the rest immigrants from the former Soviet Union.
“The Arabs have been attracted to this field since the time of Muhammad Ali in the 1970s,” said William Shahada, its head. “Minorities are drawn into boxing because it’s a way to take out what’s in the stomach and in the heart. The everyday hardships, the aggressions and the deprivation.
“It’s a way to prove you are worthy. It also gives you a chance to improve your status. It’s the blacks in the US and it is Arabs and Russians here.”
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2119212,00.html
From Stephen Farrell in Umm al-Fahm
Boxers are not short of opponents, be they suspicious Israelis or critical clerics
AT ONE end of a gym in this hilltop town in northern Israel Riham Agabaria jams a headguard over her white hijab in readiness for another training session. Next week the 15-year-old must defend her national title.
At the other end Riham’s 13-year-old sister, Fatima, thuds rights and lefts into a punchbag, her slim frame concealed by the modesty-protecting garments in which Arab girls are permitted to box.
It is hard for any boxer to become a champion, but for this unlikely pair the obstacles are even greater.
As female boxers they attract the disapproval of some Islamic leaders, and astonished stares from Israelis. As Israeli Arabs they and their brother Amar face the scorn of fellow Arabs abroad. Amar, another Israeli amateur boxing champion, recently approached his Algerian opponents at an international match hand outstretched. He was rebuffed by his fellow Arabs, who mistook him for the Zionist enemy.
“It took 15 minutes to explain I’m an Arab and Muslim but only one listened. The rest just walked off,” he complained.
The talented Agabaria siblings have the best of teachers. As they sweat through a 90-minute training session the man with the stopwatch shouting “faster, faster” is their father Taufiq, a former champion who now runs the club.
At the end of the session Riham and Fatima go at each other full pelt, headscarves flying below their helmets.
“I wanted to box. My father didn’t push me into it,” Fatima insists afterwards. “It isn’t something disgraceful for women and it’s a kind of self-defence.”
Her sister, who was inspired by Muhammad Ali’s daughter Layla and the Briton Prince Naseem, agrees. “It gives you confidence and keeps you in shape,” Riham chips in before readjusting the pins in her headscarf and dashing off with friends.
They need that confidence, for ignorance and discrimination are facts of life for Israel’s 1.35 million Arabs. They are regarded as pariahs by many Arabs for living in the Jewish state, and complain of being second-class citizens within it.
In last week’s general election the Yisrael Beitenu (Israel, Our Home) party led by Avigdor Lieberman secured 11 seats with a pledge to throw 500,000 of Israel’s Arab citizens out of the country, including the population of Umm al-Fahm.
The girl boxers have also had to confront prejudice from within their own community. “One sheikh declared it haraam (religiously prohibited) in a local newspaper last year,” said their father. “But we have the backing of the mayor so no one has ever dared to stop us.”
The Israel Boxing Association, whose website bears the slogan “Boxing is the bridge for co-existence”, has 2,000 members, of which nearly 70 per cent are Arabs and many of the rest immigrants from the former Soviet Union.
“The Arabs have been attracted to this field since the time of Muhammad Ali in the 1970s,” said William Shahada, its head. “Minorities are drawn into boxing because it’s a way to take out what’s in the stomach and in the heart. The everyday hardships, the aggressions and the deprivation.
“It’s a way to prove you are worthy. It also gives you a chance to improve your status. It’s the blacks in the US and it is Arabs and Russians here.”