Last month, the International Boxing Association (AIBA) lifted a ban on hijabs and different complete-frame uniforms that opponents put on for nonsecular reasons. This supposed Muslim teen Safiyyah Syeed, who wears a hijab, can take her love of boxing to the next level. The 18-yr-old from Bradford started boxing a yr in the past. When she became affected by anorexia and bulimia, she wrote a bucket list, which blanketed turning into a boxer. Overcoming the situations, Safiyah said she wishes to show human beings that it’s viable to overcome intellectual health problems and have a positive relationship with your frame. Now she desires to be one of the first Muslim ladies to compete nationally and someday take her boxing to the Olympics. To prepare, Safiyyah, studying management software at university, has begun education twice a day.
‘I become a chunk concerned at the start approximately being a hijabi girl going into a boxing health club. It’s now not what human beings are used to,’ stated Safiyah. ‘But everybody has been so high-quality and supportive. No one minds that I put on hijab in the ring. ‘It doesn’t affect my boxing in any respect, some people assume it would make it hard to move, but I neglect I’m even sporting it.’ Safiyyah, who volunteers at a mental health charity, spars with each man and woman through schooling. ‘I consider the primary man I sparred with; he winded me,’ she added. ‘He didn’t recognize he had completed it due to the fact I hid it due to the fact my education has always stated don’t show any emotion. ‘They don’t go clean on me, but I constantly say, “simply because I’m a lady don’t assume whatever exceptional of me.”’
During her struggle with ingesting issues, Safiya became mattress-ridden. She determined whilst she got better; she could begin boxing. ‘I decided that years of being sick became sufficient. I wrote a listing of factors that I wanted to do with my life, like start a YouTube channel and cross sky diving. ‘Boxing was on the listing, and as quickly as I felt sturdy enough, I commenced doing it. ‘I need to expose human beings that mental health problems don’t should maintain you again.’ Restrictions on sporting a hijab, even as competing in boxing, have been an ongoing issue in boxing affecting women Muslim boxers within the past. The ban had averted Amaiya Zafar, an 18-year-antique boxer from Minnesota within the United States, from competing globally. The ban excluded her from qualifiers for the 2020 Olympics, but the guideline trade will permit her to try and end up an Olympian in 2024. Who knows, Safiyah may even want to be joining her.
