Girl Power: Jordan’s Female Boxers

Girl’s boxing may not be a mainstream sport in the Middle East, but surprisingly enough, it does exist in Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco.

What’s more, a 2007 rule-change in the Olympics dictated that if a country doesn’t have a girls’ team, it can’t enter its male fighters in major tournaments.

Jordanian coach Ayman Away may have his misgivings as he shows up to work at Jordan’s national boxing arena, but has little choice but to train the nation’s young ladies as well as men.

“It’s a physical thing. They shouldn’t fight, they should stay at home. A woman should be a lady.” Ayman tells Australia’s The Age Magazine.

Would You Let Your Own Wife Box?

The Jordanian Amateur Boxing Association has jumped on the bandwagon and recruited four girls, who joined the police force and then side-stepped to become full time boxers, or at least, to train full time.

“I have no problem with it,” says Walid Jarrar, a committee member of the Jordanian Amateur Boxing Association, in The Age Article. “I’d let my own wife box. I’m already teaching her tennis and swimming.”

Between 2005 and 2007, this brave quartet of Jordanian girls sparred together, in preparation for the Arab women’s tournament in Tunisia.

Jordanian Girls Box Clever

Naturally, the word on the streets  in Amman is that the emergence of Jordan’s all-girl boxing team stems from ambitions that male boxers enter mainstream competition.

Oddly enough, none of the four female contenders are from Jordan’s Muslim and Arab mainstream. The three Muslims on the team, who train in hijabs, are members of Jordan’s small minority of African descent.  One, Fatema Hwatat (22) was back in the ring five months after living birth to her first child in 2007 (How’s that for girl power?) The fourth, Rudeinah, is a Christian.

An Up and Coming Trend?

If you wander away from the Amateur Boxing Association’s HQ, to the other side of Amman, you’ll findThe Ring, a small private boxing club, which is home to a very different boxing scene.

Ayman Alnadi, a former Jordanian, Arab and Asian champion, trains a handful of young middle-class girls in what he refers to as the more aesthetic aspects of the sport.

“I understood that women are very good at technical boxing and I like to box technically,” he says. “You can call it beautiful boxing.”

With its juice bar, techno music, state-of-the-art gear and paid monthly membership, the Ring is in a league of its own.

“Most of the women are coming here for fitness, and as a pressure relief,” says Leena Hakuz, 30, the gym’s full-time female trainer and a black belt in kickboxing and taekwondo.