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The young boxer who left Kabul to enter the ring on behalf of Afghan women
Rezai was a member of Afghanistan’s national boxing team -- an undefeated champion and one of very few women in her country to take part in the male-dominated sport. Now, she’s a refugee.
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Eighteen year-old Afghan refugee boxer Seema Rezai poses in a villa complex turned shelter for refugees in Doha on 08 September, 2021. (MOFA/Marwan Tahtah)
S
eema Rezai, 18 years old, left her boxing gloves in Afghanistan. There, Rezai was a member of Afghanistan’s national boxing team -- an undefeated champion and one of very few women in her country to take part in the male-dominated sport. Now, she’s a refugee.
Despite not having brought her equipment, she still wakes up every morning at 5 AM to train. In the thick Qatari heat, Rezai runs laps around her residence -- a villa complex built to accommodate guests for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. It is now being used to house Afghan refugees transiting through the small Gulf country.
Rezai wears her aspirations on her sleeve: a tattoo, proudly displayed on her hand reads, “boxer”. Another, of the five interlocking Olympic rings, symbolizes her dream to win an Olympic medal for country.
“I love boxing and fighting,” she says, smiling shyly.
Her soft-spokenness is deceptive. Rezai became a boxer against her parents wishes. She even bullied her way into the sport -- her trainer was initially hesitant to train a woman, she says, because it was not a normalized activity for women in Afghanistan. But her passion for the sport ultimately convinced him. Six months later, she had made it onto Afghanistan’s national boxing team, and remains undefeated two years later.
When the Taliban swept into the Afghan capital of Kabul on August 15, Rezai knew she had to leave.
The Islamist insurgents had made lightning-quick advances across the country, emboldened by the withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan after a 20-year presence in the country. Within a matter of days, the Afghan government had collapsed, Afghanistan’s president had fled, and all major cities were captured.
