Last month, the International Boxing Association (AIBA) lifted a ban on hijabs and different complete-frame uniforms opponents wore 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-year-old from Bradford started boxing a year 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 overcoming intellectual health problems and having a positive relationship with your frame is viable. 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, who is studying management software at university, has begun education twice daily.
‘I become a chunk concerned at the start approximately being a hijabi girl going into a boxing health club. It’s now not what humans 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 volunteers at a mental health charity and 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, and my education has always stated not to 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 while she got better, she could begin boxing. ‘I decided that years of being sick became sufficient. I listed factors I wanted to do with my life, like starting a YouTube channel and cross-sky diving. ‘Boxing was on the listing, and I commenced doing it as quickly as I felt sturdy enough. ‘I need to expose human beings that mental health problems don’t affect you again.’ Restrictions on sporting a hijab, even as competing in boxing, have been an ongoing issue in boxing affecting women Muslim boxers in the past. The ban had averted Amaiya Zafar, an 18-year-antique boxer from Minnesota in 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 to become an Olympian in 2024. Who knows, Safiyah may even want to be joining her.
