PHOTO: ATHAR KHAN/EXPRESS
KARACHI: Khoushleem Bano, Rukhsana Parveen and Sofia Javed have been named to compete at the women’s boxing event of the South Asian Games in India next month.
The Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) announced the women’s and men’s squad for the Games on Wednesday, with the three girls being chosen to represent Pakistan in the 51kg, 60kg and 75kg competitions respectively.
Gilgit-Baltistan’s (G-B) Khoushleem said she is honoured to be a part of Pakistan’s first female squad to feature in an international event.
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“I’m happy that we’ll finally get to show the world that Pakistani women are talented in boxing too,” Khoushleem told The Express Tribune. “I’m from G-B but I’ve trained in Lahore with coach Noman Karim. I study at the Imperial University and I’m glad I switched from rowing to boxing.”
The 22-year-old said she had to fight hard against stereotypes to pursue her passion for boxing and admitted that she had to convince her rather conservative family back home to allow her to pursue the sport. “They were scared because women are considered as the weaker sex, but now they are proud of me,” she said.
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Meanwhile, in the men’s event, Naimatulah will be making his international comeback in the 56kg category after two years. The other athletes in the squad include Ali Ahmed (60kg), Gul Zaib (64kg), Arshad Hussain (69kg), Tanveer Ahmed (75kg), Mohibullah (49kg) and Syed Muhammad Asif (52kg).
Published in The Express Tribune, January 7th, 2016.
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