Gloves of steel.
By Musab K Ghouri
21 April 2016
Her Sundays are different from your Sundays. Her accent is different from yours. Her family background may not be that powerful but her jabs surely are. Twenty-year-old Memoona trains at the local fitness club in Karachi aim to become Pakistan’s Best boxing champion. She tells her life story while practicing her jabs, hooks and upper cuts.Boxing and bangles don’t work together, but Memoona proved otherwise ‘‘I asked Coach Majeed If I could train with him in the morning, he saw that i had potential and two weeks later he asked me to join the boxing camp’’ said Memoona. Her enthusiasm for boxing gleams in the fact that she left her hometown and moved to a completely strange city just to fulfill her dream.
The 15th Chief of Army staff is different from the previous 14. While Musharraf submitted. Zia dictated, Yahya divided and Ayub planted the coup idea, there is one thing thay all had in common; a moustache and a lack of regard for the constitution.
At a local boxing club in defense, Majeed Brohi trains Memoona for the boxing world championship. ‘‘I know she will not win the world championship but surely she will prove to the world that Pakistani women can hit you hard, really hard’’ says Majeeb Brohi, a former boxer. Majeeb was wronged by the association when he insisted to them that Memoona was a fair candidate to be sent for national and international camps, and the association gave importance to other players, undermining memuna everytime. When Majeeb raaised his voice against the injustice he was asked to resign as a national team coach and so he has been managing work all on his own, training kids without any government help and support. He truly sacrificed his work in order to right the wrong.
Almost a thousand miles away from her hometown Memoona trains everyday for 16 hours. A national level throw ball player who never even thought of boxing will be representing Pakistan for the women boxing world championship. This young boxer not only battled the board but is also fighting her way through the conservative society where women and girls face numerous challenges from both the Taliban and their families.
