yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

This Teen Boxer Wants A Chance to Compete Wearing Her Hijab | National Geographic


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

There's a prayer that we do that says, "If this is good for me, give it to me, and if it's not good for me, then keep it away from me." Every time I make that prayer, I'm like, "But what if God takes it from me?"

My name is Amaya Zafar. I'm 16 years old and I'm a Muslim boxer from Minnesota. I love boxing, but I love my religion, and I want to be able to do both without compromising another. I'm not allowed to fight with my hijab because, in the rule book, it says you can only fight with the like sanctioned uniform, which is the trunks and the jersey.

All right, you ready? Yeah. I cover to show my faith and my self-respect. I think it's ignorance when people say, "Just take it off." To me, it's like, "Would you fight with no clothes?"

People in the Muslim community—not people that I know, but online—will be like, "This is not Islamic. Girls shouldn't be doing this." To say that I can't because I'm a girl? It says nowhere that I can't do anything a guy can do. Before boxing, I was just a girl, you know? Then boxing showed me that being a girl means that you're strong. I can push harder than most guys because I have discipline. I have the strength that a lot of people told me I didn't have.

So, I've talked to local officials and the officials with USA Boxing, and they've been helpful. The executive director has asked internationally for a waiver, so I'm just waiting to hear back from that. I've worked so hard for it, and I keep working hard every single day. For them to tell me, "You can't fight," it's like, "What do you mean? Of course, I know how to, and I'm good at it."

Maybe the rules say I can't, but I think the rules will change. I want to fight with my hijab and Under Armour in the 2020 Olympics. Eventually, it's my dream. I will be able to fight someday soon, hopefully, but if not, I don't care how old I am. I'm going to train until then. [Music] [Music] [Music]

More Articles

View All
STOCK MARKET HITS ALL TIME HIGHS - TIME TO SELL!!
What’s up you guys, it’s Graham here. So we’ve seen it again: stocks have just hit all-time highs. But the real question remains, how high can this go? And also, should we just sell it all? I feel like so many people are sitting on the edge of their seat,…
Winners and losers from inflation and deflation | AP Macroeconomics | Khan Academy
What we’re going to do in this video is talk more about inflation and deflation, which we’ve talked about in other videos. But we’re going to talk about it in the context of who benefits and who gets hurt, especially in a situation where people are lendin…
Her "Classroom" is an Environmental Theme Park | Best Job Ever
Imagine that you are a child. You are 10 years old and “environment” is a word that nobody understands. My job is to train the next explorers of Grandmother Earth to be teachers, to be environmental instructors. That’s why I wanted to create a special pla…
Leading and lagging strands in DNA replication | MCAT | Khan Academy
Let’s talk a little bit in more depth about how DNA actually copies itself, how it actually replicates, and we’re going to talk about the actual actors in the process. Now, as I talk about it, I’m going to talk a lot about the three prime and the five pri…
Strategic | Vocabulary | Khan Academy
I love it when a plan comes together, word Smiths, because the word I’m featuring in this video is strategic. Strategic, it’s an adjective, and it means related to a plan. It’s the adjective form of strategy, which is a way of thinking about making effect…
Clattering Penguins and Naughty Seals | Epic Adventures with Bertie Gregory on Disney+
Chin straps get their name from that black marking that runs under their chin. Uh, and they’re also sometimes called stone breaker penguins because of that ear-piercing screech. They’re really sociable birds that waddle ashore in these massive numbers to…