Three young Afghan female boxers risk missing an official invitation to train and fight in the UK because of “excessive” red tape.
Sadaf Rahimi, Fahima Mohammad and Shabnam Rahman have overcome a host of cultural and financial barriers to pursue their sport in Kabul.
They were due to visit London for their first bout with UK rivals as part of International Women’s Day tomorrow.
Instead, they have been forced to wait for days in Delhi for paperwork that has already been approved to be “officially processed.”
The team from Kabul has “invited status” and support for sports visas, but visitors from Afghanistan must get paperwork in India before they can travel to the UK.
Margaret Pope, founder of the Women in Sport Foundation which had worked to bring the Afghan boxers to the UK, said of the delay: “It is a frustrating, 11th-hour development to a groundbreaking initiative ... to bring the women to the UK and equip them with skills and experience to take back to Afghanistan.”
“One of the justifications for the UK military involvement in Afghanistan was to help improve the terrible situation for the country’s women,” she said.
“It is therefore a bitter irony that when there is a clear opportunity to assist some of the bravest, talented and most inspiring young Afghan women, bureaucratic delays are quashing their dreams,” she added.
“Making Afghans who request visas travel to a third country in order to receive them and then wait weeks to hear if they have been successful could cynically be seen as a way of discouraging all those but the very wealthy from visiting the UK,” former aid worker Melanie Brown said.
“This is extremely frustrating, there is the considerable cost and the impracticality of staying in Delhi for weeks at a time while waiting for paperwork to be rubber-stamped,” Brown added.
Rahimi, Mohammad and Rahman are due to train and attend a charity auction in London to raise money for their gym in Kabul, then travel to Bristol to be coached by Britain’s first officially licensed female boxer, Jane Couch MBE.
Couch is no stranger to struggles with authorities — in 1998, she persuaded an industrial tribunal to overturn a British Boxing Board of Control (BBBC) ruling that had denied her a license. The BBBC had said that premenstrual syndrome made women too unstable to box.
After years of lobbying from British female fighters, women’s boxing was officially recognized as an Olympic sport on Aug. 14, 2009.
At the London 2012 Games, there were female boxers from Kazakhstan, North Korea and Turkey, while British boxer Nicola Adams became the first woman to win an Olympic boxing gold.
Taiwanese gymnast Tang Chia-hung on Sunday topped the men’s horizontal bar event at the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) World Cup in Osijek, Croatia, scoring 15.233 to take his third title this season. Tang delivered an outstanding performance in the final, earning a difficulty score of 6.500 and an execution score of 8.633 with a 0.1 stick bonus. His closest competitor was Milad Karimi of Kazakhstan, who finished second with 14.933 points. It was Tang’s third gold medal in the FIG World Cup series this year, following his horizontal bar wins in Azerbaijan on March 8, and in Turkey on March
The Daredevils yesterday took eight catches in the final as they eked out a victory in the Taiwan Cricket Triangular Tournament against PCCT at Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei’s Songshan District. PCCT’s batting lineup collapsed after they asked the Daredevils to bowl in the T20 decider of the weekend tournament that also involved the Formosa Cricket Club. PCCT were bundled out for 76 in 16.2 overs against a disciplined Daredevils attack. Ninad Malwade was the top scorer in the innings with 21, but he was among those who offered chances to the fielders. Shane Ferreira and Jason Cameron took three wickets each, with
This year’s Taiwan Athletics Open, which offers Taiwanese athletes an opportunity to compete against their international peers, would be held under a new name after its organizers had earlier announced the event’s cancelation. In a statement issued yesterday, the Chinese Taipei Athletics Association said the competition would still take place on June 6-7 at Banciao Stadium, but under the name “New Taipei City Athletics Open 2026.” The event was given a new name to emphasize its local identity and conform with the international practice of naming World Athletics Tour events after cities, the association said. It said it would soon
Taiwanese shortstop Cheng Tsung-che on Friday made history for the Boston Red Sox’s Triple A affiliate, hitting the Worcester Red Sox’s first cycle, while netting two runs, as they beat fellow Taiwan teammate Stuart Fairchild’s Columbus Clippers. The 24-year-old former Pittsburgh Pirates prospect went 4-4, completing a full cycle, starting with a triple in the second inning off Ryan Webb in the WooSox’s 9-3 victory over the Cleveland Guardians’ Triple A affiliate. He scored in the same inning after teammate Vinny Capra, a fellow former Pirate, grounded out. The Pingtung County native followed that up with a walk in the third, an
RSS