“We work for the future, because the past is lost.”

Female boxers in Afghanistan, Credit: Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times

As Girlboxing readers know, I just can’t get enough of the Afghan Women’s Boxing Team. The Los Angeles Times has obliged with an in-depth feature piece by Molly Hennessy-Fiske.  The haunting money quote by the team’s coach, Mohammad Sabir Sharifi truly resonated with me: “We work for the future, because the past is lost.”

Sharifi and some of the young women he trains have a received threats, and yet they persevere.  As if to punctuate the pluckiness of these brave young women, two members of the team traveled unaccompanied all the way to Turkey by train and competed in the early rounds of the ongoing AIBA Women’s and Youth Junior World Boxing Championships in Antalya, Turkey.

These young women who train in the face of continuing threats of violence due to nothing more than their gender are emblematic of how much further we all have to come.  I applaud their bravery and as the mother of an 11-year-old girl, feel particularly humbled by the love and support these young women receive from their families and their coach as they pursue their Olympic dreams.

Way to go!!!

The full LA Times article link is here.