Zainab Ali
LYARI: Pakistani child Aliya Soomro from Lyari was not yet 10 years old when she learned a boxing coach was training young girls near her home and decided to learn boxing.
Aliya Soomro lives in a densely populated neighborhood in Karachi, Lyari, known for its dangerous streets and gang violence. When she decided to learn boxing, her conservative family and community were initially concerned, but boxing soon proved to be a way out of poverty for Aliya Soomro.
Following her, other young girls in Lyari are now also getting the chance to follow their athletic dreams.
When she started boxing 10 years ago, everyone dismissed it as a whim. She said that people would tell her that she didn’t look like a boxer; look at her condition, but after she fought in the game, people said that the one who does look like a boxer is never the one while the one who does not look like a boxer is the one.
Even her mother didn’t take her seriously.
‘’At the start, my mother would look at me and say that I won’t be able to do it. Girls are considered weak in our society; if anyone says anything to them, they would be afraid and sit back’’ said Aliya.
Aliya Soomro lives with her family in Lyari, an urban slum of Karachi that got a population 15th times more than its size. Poverty and literacy rates are high, and people are conservative.
Lyari is known for being one of the most violent areas of Karachi. From 2003 to 2015, a brutal war between two rival gangs broke out in one of the most violent areas of Karachi. Things got bad when hundreds of people died in the fighting. Aliya, a kid at that time, grew up surrounded by the sound of gunfire.
The young female boxer recalls her tale
‘’People were scared even to come here when there was a gang war among our people; whenever we stepped outside our house or if our brother, father or son stepped outside, we would fear that they would get shot,’’ Aliya said while sharing recalling those days.
round 800 people were killed yearly during the height of violence in Lyari, and Pakistani rangers started a crime prevention operation in Karachi. Despite all of this, or perhaps because of it, Lyari has produced some wonderful athletes.
Some of the best Pakistani footballers are from Lyari. Muhammad Ali visited Lyari himself back in the 1980s. When she was a kid, Aliya Soomro learned that her maternal grandfather had been a good boxer too.
‘’After listening to the family history, I was after everyone in the home to start boxing and make a name for the family, which no one else was able to do; once I decided to do, I made everyone’s life miserable and kept insisting that I wanted to learn’’ said Aliya Soomro.
Aliya Soomro’s mother said neighbors would gossip that they had put a girl in this field and that she should be given religious education.
‘’What have you done? Make her do what boys do? This is not appropriate’’ people would ask Aliya’s mother.
Over 90% of the women do not play any sport in Pakistan. Even the idea is orthodox in conservative areas, and few women who managed to play go as professional. Aliya’s father supports her; she said that people would question her father about allowing her to box.
‘’My father was told don’t you have shame; you are sending your daughter to learn boxing, make her recite the Quran, convey her Allah’s message, what are you teaching her?’’
But for Aliya, not only the disapproval of her neighbors but her financial conditions were also hurdles in fulfilling her dreams.
‘’If I were in India or any other country and had I been known on social media platforms, so many clubs would have been established under my name, but Pakistan is the only country where athletes are not respected at all.’’ Aliya Soomro.
Pakistan is a Muslim state where gender dissimilarity obstructs women’s contribution. Due to this, females have inadequate opportunities to sustain their participation in sports. The sports atmosphere for females, in which they may participate and perform together with males, is not supported by the sports climate of Pakistan.
Sports authorities need to give female athletes equal chances in sport participation. They should also provide incentives to winning female athletes, similar to their male counterparts, to encourage greater female participation in sports.
Hence, these concerns and issues cannot be ignored in understanding Pakistani women’s sports involvement. Moreover, recommendations of successful female athletes must be considered in the design and conduct of strategies and approaches for this purpose.
