Source: Associated Press
By Cindy Boren
Sixteen-year-old Amaiya Zafar was about to put on her gloves Sunday at the Sugar Bert Boxing National Championships inhij, Fla., when officials called off the impending fight.
Zafar, a devout Muslim from Oakdale, Minn., wears a hijab under her headgear as well as a shirt and leggings under her shorts and top. Such apparel has been deemed a violation of uniform regulations set by the International Boxing Association for reasons USA Boxing executive director Michael Martino called “clearly a safety issue.”
As a result, Zafar was disqualified, and her opponent, Aliyah Charbonier, was declared the winner — though that didn’t quite sit right with Charbonier. So she approached Zafar.
“This girl comes up to me then and puts her belt in my lap and says, ‘This is yours. They disqualified you. You’re the true winner. This is unfair,’ ” Zafar recalled over the phone Tuesday morning. “Then we started hugging each other, and the owner [of the event] came and got me to make sure I got [a belt.]”
Charbonier said she felt she needed to do something.
“It’s just not right,” the 15-year-old from Clermont, Fla., said. “It’s not really a distraction for me what she’s wearing. She still had on gloves and headgear. I felt really bad for her. They didn’t give her a chance to fight. We tried to tell them that it was all right, but for safety purposes they say they need to have a visual of your arms. And yet they still have 18-year-olds fighting 20-somethings. It wasn’t right.”
[In Minnesota, a young Muslim girl is fighting to be allowed to box in a hijab]
The journey to a bout hasn’t been easy for Zafar, who fell hard for boxing at a Minneapolis-area gym over two years ago and has since fought to fight in traditional dress. Her father, Mohammad, initially suggested that she take up fencing, to which she responded, “I’ll box before I’ll fence.” Mohammad Zafar worked with his daughter on the finer points of amateur boxing, and she found a group to train with, winning the support of male teammates after meeting one in the ring.
Categories: Hijab, The Muslim Times, Women In islam
Muslim women CAN do anything a man can do, but SHOULD they is a whole nother question. Everything comes with a price. To possibly trade the health of her reproductive organs for a sport is too big a price to pay.