Female boxing is already a divisive sport, but throw religion into that equation and things become complicated. At least, that was certainly the case for 20-year-old Muslim boxer Ambreen Sadiq, whose incredible story inspired a new play that’s now being shown at the Edinburgh Festival.
During her career, Ambreen has faced serious prejudice from the British Muslim community on her way to becoming a UK national champion. They objected to her choice of career because of her religion, her gender and on the basis of the clothes she chose to wear.
Ambreen explained to The Telegraph: ‘My dad’s family are Pakistani Muslims and they’re very into their community. It was all “you’re bringing shame into the culture” because I’m an Asian Muslim girl. If I was a boy, it wouldn’t matter.’
Despite the fact that her parents were supportive of her choices, her extended family made their disapproval abundantly clear. After her first boxing fight, her uncle made this crushing assessment of her career: ‘He said “You’ve done really good but it’s your first and your last fight. You shouldn’t do this any more because you’re bringing shame to the family”,’ she remembers. ‘I was like, “I’ve been training for two years and at my party you tell me I can’t fight”. I said: “I'm sorry, this is what I love”. Obviously, they weren’t happy about it.’
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It wasn’t just her family. When her success grew, Ambreen was called a transsexual at school and her mother was accosted by people at her mosque who asked her how they could let her daughter box for a living. At times, Ambreen considered if it was all worth it: ‘I thought, “What have I got myself into?” The negative side was more from other women. I had loads of them saying that I was making them look bad.’
‘I was quite scared. I thought, “What have I done that’s so bad that people want to come and kill me?”’
Ambreen also had to deal with the fact that many people within her community disapproved of the clothes she wore when fighting, and her family were up in arms about the fact her shorts and vest exposed her legs and arms. Despite the adversity, Ambreen’s determination made her one of the most successful women in her field and her story has now been adapted into a play called No Guts, No Heart, No Glory which is being performed at the Edinburgh Festival. She explains:
‘It’s great that I can get my story out there. I think girls should be doing anything they want to be doing. I got bullied: people said your mum’s a Portuguese this, your dad’s a Paki this. I took my aggression out on the [punch] bag. It helped me to be a happier person. Boxing for a female is so different, so the fact I was breaking down barriers pushed me on. When I train I do sometimes get my aggression out, but now I love doing it. I’ve never been so passionate about any other sport.
‘Anything that you do, there are going to be people that are negative and don’t like it. You have to decide: do you want to do what you love, or do you want to please other people?’
Anyone else fallen a little bit in love with Ambreen?
Follow Sophie on Twitter@sophiecullinane
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.