Grappling with stereotypes
Mixed martial arts (MMA) competitions have been around for decades now. In that time, the popularity and reach of various promotions like the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has made the sport a household name. From an exclusively male pursuit in its early years, MMA can now boast of a huge ever-growing fan base that transcends both borders and gender barriers. It has also made women fighters like Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano international superstars.
Like other nations, Pakistan too, in recent years, has been home to a burgeoning MMA scene. A handful of Pakistani fighters have already made waves internationally and many more are sure to follow their lead.
Given the sport’s physical nature and the social attitudes towards gender that continue to prevail in the country, it may seem that there is not much scope for Pakistani women in MMA as of yet. But some of the strongest Pakistani women fighters are more than a step ahead of that line of thinking and have taken it upon themselves to knock such stereotypes out of the octagon.
The one in three hundred
Although it has not been long since MMA gyms and training were formally introduced in Pakistan, the country has already produced more than 300 fighters that are competing internationally in the sport. Among them, stands just one woman at the moment: Anita Karim.
Born and raised in Hunza valley, it only took Anita two months to get her grip on the sport and make it to the international ring. It would take her another three to win her first international bout.
"It is quite usual, to be honest. I belong to a family of Taekwondo black belt holders and to an area where the women do all the toughest work. The bodies of the women in our region are trained to do hard work. From an early age, we carry a lot of load on our backs and climb up the hills. A woman carries around 20 to 30 kilogrammes of wood, crop and other necessities for many kilometres. This makes our muscles adapted to hard work," she says.
Talking about her exposure, Anita said daughters where she comes from are bound to learn both household work while they continue to study. In a mostly male-dominant society, the restriction acts like a barbed wire around the ambitions of women. Anita herself, however, was raised differently.
In 2017, Anita, along with her brothers moved to Islamabad, where she was given an option to either study or train for MMA. "The fact that I had the option was a blessing. So I chose both,” she said. Anita completed her Intermediate and went to the gym where her coaches Ehtisham Karim and Ali Sultan trained her for the first time. It was during this training that she decided to pursue MMA full time.
Ehtisham, while talking to The Express Tribune, said that Anita was tough since the beginning. "When we brought her to the gym, she passed all the tests and was comfortable with all the techniques other male fighters learn,” he said. “Since the beginning, she had a spark in her and that is why we decided to train her for professional MMA fights.”
Tracing the origins
MMA traces its origins to the inter-stylistic duels that took place throughout Japan and other far eastern nations throughout the early part of the previous century. These mixed-style contests with an ever-changing rule set would set the scene for interplay between some of the styles that would later form the pillars of the MMA toolset: boxing, wrestling, judo, jujitsu, karate and muay thai to name a few.
The concept behind such contests along with some of the arts practiced in them also made their way to Brazil with a community of post-War Japanese migrants. This would give rise to two crucial nodes of MMA heritage: Brazilian jiu-jitsu and the ‘Vale Tudo’ or ‘everything goes’ rule set.
In the West, the idea to take what works from various fighting styles was made popular by none other than Bruce Lee and his philosophy of Jeet Kune Do. The renowned Japanese professional wrestler Antonio Inoki, famous in Pakistan for his bouts with Akram and Jhara Pehlwan, would provide one template for modern MMA with his 1976 fight with boxer Muhammad Ali. That fight would directly inspire Pancrase and Pride, two of the earliest MMA promotions that came to the fore in the 90s.
A tailor-made rule set
As a near no holds barred full-contact sport, MMA was once considered too tough and violent for both men and women. Following the surge of UFC popularity in the 90s in the US, attempts were made to prohibit MMA contests entirely and it gained the exaggerated reputation of ‘bloodsport’.
Over the years, however, various MMA promotions would tweak and refine their formula to eliminate chances of lasting or life-threatening injuries from the sport. From ‘everything goes’, MMA evolved its own set of rules, like the ones that govern boxing and other full-contact competitions.
In the United States, women's bouts, organised by EliteXC, saw three-minute rounds while those of Strikeforce initially lasted two minutes. Rounds for men, in contrast, last five minutes. Strikeforce later changed this rule to allow for five-minute rounds for all challenges regardless of gender.
Weight limits and weight classification for women’s MMA competitions are different too in several of organisations including Strikeforce, Smackgirl and Valkyrie. While men are required to wear a groin protector, women are forbidden from doing so. Women must wear a top and chest protector, while men are allowed neither.
A quarter century from its introduction, as more and more women begin to participate in the sport bouts, viewers and professionals have reassessed their own views. Nowadays, women fighters are viewed just as seriously as contenders as the men and competitions that take place on the international stage garner as much attention as well. Not only that, women MMA fighters now train alongside men and their bouts last the same duration as well.
The real challenge
According to Anita, it is not tough to pursue MMA full time, but the real challenge is social pressure. "The time I decided to go for MMA, I called up my father and told him that I am going to cut my hair and take a break from studies to train for MMA fights. My mother and father were reluctant to allow me, but when they saw the passion I had for MMA, they relented,” she said. “The real hurdle, began after that."
"The time I cut my hair and dedicated myself completely to the MMA, people back home started talking about how I’m not doing the type of work that ‘normal’ women do. They criticised me a lot on my appearance and [for] the path that I took. Unfortunately, this is why many female fighters give up; just because they face pressure from the society. I was lucky that I had a supportive brother, and he asked me to ignore everything and just focus on my training and ambition."
MMA training involves challenging and gruelling sessions that last for hours. An average training day for an MMA athlete is eight hours. But for the female fighters in Pakistan, it is even more challenging as they have to train with men. When Anita decided to take up MMA, there wasn’t a single girl in the gym that her brothers built (which is also happens to be the first-ever professional MMA training centre in Pakistan). She had no choice but to train exclusively with men.
"Although my body was already equipped because of Taekwondo and the hard work on the fields, still the MMA training was a whole new experience,” she said. “When I started to train initially, and when I got tired, I used to go to the kitchen to cry as I was not allowed to cry at the training centre. The training for a female fighter is a lot tougher than for a male fighter," she said, adding that her brother used to motivate her by saying that if they can do it, then why can't she.
Ethtisham, while explaining reasons why women leave MMA training, said, "We have lost many good fighters just because they were forced to leave by their family. Either that or their inner willpower was not enough to carry on the tough training. We have seen many leaving the training after the first two punches," he said.
Training with men
Pakistan has a limited number of women fighters, therefore, they are left to train with men. While explaining the scenario, Anita said that although it is challenging to train with men, it has given her the much-needed strength. "If I had been training with women fighters, I wouldn't be as strong and equipped as I am today. Women fighters around the world train with men to enhance their skill level. If you train for a day with men, you will learn more than you'll learn after 15 to 20 national fights against a woman. So this turned out to be a positive element for me," she said.
Anita's toughness and the confidence to try out everything that her brothers are doing at the training centre were not only developed by background in martial arts but also through a close brush with death. At the age of eight, Anita was in a motorbike accident, in which she hit her head and slipped into a coma.
Anita's confidence along with her level of performance, is something rarely seen in the ring. She has only gone from strength to strength in every fight. She emerged victorious with seven gold medals and a silver medal at the Pakistan Grappling Challenge (PGC) 2017-2018. One fight in particular, won her the title of "Arm Collector", as she won all her bouts in that fight through arm locks.
"I participated in a grappling competition, my first bout outside Taekwondo. I was up against a technically sound girl from a renowned gym. In a dramatic turn of events, I caught her in a Kimura (a type of armlock); for whatever reasons, she didn't or couldn't tap, and her arm snapped," she said.
Teaching self-defence
Anita won her first international fight, One Warrior Series (OWS), on February 28, 2019, against Indonesia's Gita Suharsono.
While recalling the time she came back to Pakistan after winning her first international fight, Anita said that she was given a very warm welcome by her family and all the men and women of her region. "The best moment was when I started hearing from the people that they want not only for their daughters to become like me but that they also want me to train their sons to become like me. This was the beginning of the rise of female MMA fighters in Pakistan. That one fight did it all," she said.
Ehtisham, while explaining the importance of Anita's win, said, "The spark that I saw in the eyes of the girls of the town, was enough for me. They now have someone to look up to. Before Anita, there was no one, no example to be given to the young girls. All the girls in the Gilgit-Baltistan region can achieve what Anita has as hard work, and fighting is in the genetics of this region," he said.
Since then, many female students, doctors, working women, and others have joined our gym to get MMA training to become a fighter and learn self-defense. "In Pakistan, we have seen many harassment cases, and in most of them, the females are blamed. This is because they don't have the self-confidence to speak up or to take action against it. If they go out confidently, then no one would dare to touch any woman. MMA is not just about going in the ring and fighting but it also teaches self-defense techniques that every woman should learn. This sport involves physical and mental training. Whenever a woman comes across any harassment, they have to be mentally strong to think about what action to take, then it comes down to the physical training that helps her defend herself," he says.
According to Ethtisham, whenever someone joins the gym, he asks them to leave their egos at the door and do as the instructor says. "MMA cannot afford any laziness. You have to be active throughout. This is why mental health is important. If you think that you have done enough for the day and you got tiered, that the time when you start losing. Many females come here who are dedicated fighter but still require years of hard work to become a professional fighter," he said, adding that it takes around three to four years of rigorous training for a woman to become a professional fighter.
By explaining the type of training the other girls are being given, Ehtisham said they are being trained on the same model as Anita was trained. "The chunk that has the desire to become professional fighters is just 1-2 per cent, rest come to learn self-defense," he said. "One has to put their full in training. You need patience, believe in yourself, do what you have to do, no ifs, no buts."
Making women independent
Female fighters in Pakistan are often discouraged by society but if they are given the right motivation and support, they can become the country's pride like Anita.
Anita, while recalling a memory of when she gained confidence to compete, said that the support of parents is really important. "Parents play an important role. I still remember that my father once decided to test my MMA skills in the beginning and asked me to try my skills on him. I told him that if I get a punch, I won't stop until I take revenge. Then I took him on and locked him in a rear-naked choke. A new person can only survive 10-15 seconds, while a trained athlete can bear upto 30 seconds. So I started counting, and my father started to faint after five seconds so I loosened my hold. That was day my father said that he has full confidence in me," she said.
Anita believes that women should not be dependent on anyone to go somewhere. “They should be able to work as men and MMA teaches that,” she says.
The future of women in MMA
Although many women have started to train in MMA, according to Anita, there is a long way to go before Pakistan will list among the top MMA fighters. "The women have the potential to do that. We just have to be dedicated and never give up. One should keep trying and facing the difficult phases in life, but giving up should not be the option. I have had many occasions where I could have given up gone back to my region to do the same thing that other women are doing,” she says.
Ethtisham believes that a woman should learn household work but at the same time should be independent enough to take care of herself. "Anita has learned all the household work. She is an expert in doing everything but her skills at MMA are the best. This was possible only because she kept on trying and fighting herself to become a stronger fighter," he said.
He also emphasised the importance of holding local leagues and competitions. "Right now, there is no league in Pakistan for both male and female fighters. There is a lot of potentials, but the platform is not given. If one won't see any future of the sport, then the number of fighters will remain low, and Pakistan won't be able to participate internationally."
"There are cages at the amateur level academies which lets them get the experience. The more a fighter fights, the more experience he gets. No matter how much training you do, the skills that you learn from a fight in a cage cannot be learned anywhere else," he said.
He also added that the need for working at the grassroots level is really important. "You cannot make international participation if you only hold major tournaments. You have to invest in the grassroots. Only then you can make great fighters.