The Boxing Girls of Kabul

February 7, 2012 1:54 PM

A documentary by Ariel Nasr, "The Boxing Girls of Kabul" (National Film Board of Canada trailer), profiles a group of young Afghan women training to compete in women's boxing in the 2012 Olympics (which will feature boxing for the first time as a women's event). Radio Netherlands interviews 18 year old Shabnam Rahimi, and the Toronto Star has a photo album on the athletes. If all that inspires you, petition President Hamid Karzai's government to support the team, via this petition page. (Nasr is also known for his documentary, "Good Morning Kandahar".)
posted by aught (3 comments total)

Just a couple of days ago edguardo commented about how boxing would be better than ninja training for women in patriarchal societies (while acknowledging that anything is better than nothing). And here we are.

This is awesome. I like that it looks like women of all ages are participating.
posted by postel's law at 2:49 PM on February 7, 2012

This looks great, thanks for posting. After seeing this post and this article about women boxers in India I can hardly wait for the 2012 Olympics. As much as I'll be rooting for the US boxers, but it would be great to see someone from Afghanistan or India take home the gold.
posted by smartyboots at 3:09 PM on February 7, 2012

Boxing is such a great sport. You can smash your opponents nose in and make it crooked and bloody. You can punch your opponents eyes lots of times so that they swell up and they can't see. You can hit your opponent so hard that their brain rattles in their head and they fall over unconscious. You can pepper your opponents body with a series of 1-2 punches breaking their ribs and winding them before you hit them with a windmill punch and dislocate their jaw. Colour me inspired to petition Karzai.
posted by unliteral at 3:14 PM on February 7, 2012