"She must be a tomboy".

Tough sports don't make a person hard inside.

The 21K-4-21K team is made up of four girls who in some way or another are involved in sports which some claim are 'violent' or 'combative'...fencing, taekwondo, rugby and boxing. For this post, I'll focus on boxing, but the message applies to women in all sports.

For most of the general population, the idea of boxing might conjure up images of heavy weight champion Muhammed Ali in the rope-a-dope with George Foreman, or Tyson biting off Holyfield's ear! You might think of Rocky with his ever-expanding muscular bulk.  You may think of sweat, heavy bags and two people knocking the day lights out of each other.  That - I argue - is the 'stigma' associated with boxing.  Just as media today has misinformed many of us about so many things, boxing too is pegged with its own misconceptions. Add to the mix boxing for women, and you can almost imagine what some people assume. She must be a tomboy. Definitely masculine. Rough and tough. Stubborn perhaps. Unmarriageable.

It's so easy to think that we know.  We read the news and think we know what is happening half way across the world.  We meet a few people from a particular country and we suddenly know exactly how everyone else in the country thinks.  We take a history class and we can almost recreate the past.

We meet a female in sport, and we are confident we know 'her type'.
Just as each coin has two sides, we cannot claim to know the whole picture when we have only seen one side (let alone the fact that most of that side too is a construction!).  What side of boxing may we fail to see?  Feelings of empowerment and accomplishment? Camaraderie felt amongst coaches and teammates?  Acceptance into a community, even by opponents? Respect shared amongst athletes? Belief in the idea of honouring one's body?  Life lessons learnt through the sport? Confidence? Perseverance? Love?

I wonder if we forget that Muhammad Ali, Tyson and Rocky were all many things outside of the ring, just as a female boxer is so much more than a female boxer. I loved seeing one female boxer caressing her two-year old daughter before she entered the ring to compete.  One lady at the gym shadowboxes like an art, and her love for plants never seizes to amaze me.  We've had female boxers bake the best cookies and bring them to share.  I've met female boxers who dedicate hours upon hours to community service.  I know female boxers who are students, stay at home moms and senior bureaucrats in government.  I know a female boxer who won an award to recite her poetry to Nelson Mandela. The list goes on.

There is so much more to a person than meet's the eye.  I think we all know this...I just hope that for those times that we forget (and many of us do forget) we force ourselves to remember.  All the women in sport that I know well are strong, amazing and beautiful inside and out Mashallah. Tough sports don't make a person hard inside.