Young female boxers punch through gender barriers

In a dense and dusty neighborhood in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, eight young girls lined up against a cement wall, touching their hands to their faces in prayer before boxing practice began.

For the past six months, these athletes-in-the-making have been training at the Pak Shaheen Boxing Club in Lyari, a packed Karachi district known more for its internecine gang warfare.

During the week, a dozen girls, aged 8 to 17, go to the club after school to practice their jabs, hooks and uppercuts for hours in the hope of one day bringing a medal home to Pakistan.

"I have been training since I was a child," said Urooj Qambrani, 15. "Inshallah (God willing), I will become an international boxer. ... I will make Pakistan's name famous."

Younis Qambrani, the coach who founded the club in 1992, said Pakistani women have been training as boxers in small numbers and competed in the South Asian Games last year.

The growth of the sport for both men and women has been dogged by a lack of equipment and adequate facilities, but the situation is slowly improving, he said.

In Pakistan, a conservative Muslim society, women and girls face additional obstacles - both from Taliban threats for going to school and also violence from family members, including so-called honor killings in which male relatives kill girls considered to have brought shame to the family name.

In October, the Sindh Boxing Association organized a camp for female boxers in Karachi, the first time that a government-supported event for women in the sport had been held in the country, according to media reports.

Some of the girls in Qambrani's family, who had taken up practicing at home, took part in the camp. They went to him afterward to ask why they could not train at his club as well.

"A number of girls were keen on training, but due to social pressures, I had been avoiding the issue," Qambrani said.

"Last year, a girl came to me, asking why girls couldn't train. I was moved when she said, 'No one teaches us how to defend ourselves'," he said.

Since then, some of the girls have begun to take part in tournaments, entering the ring in white track suits, headscarves and boxing gloves.

For Anum Qambrani, the coach's 17-year-old daughter, getting the chance to train formally at the club was nothing short of fulfilling her birthright.

"My two uncles are international boxers, and my father is a coach," she said. "Boxing is in our blood."