Cultural Life, Arts and Expression: Nadifa

“I'm Nadifa from Khanasor. I loved sports even before... But after the events of ISIS on women, girls and Shingal in general, I found that women were in a very weak situation [and] I said that sports will help them to protect themselves when they aren't with their brothers or parents. Even when women have no weapons with them, they can save themselves from those bad guys. I said this boxing course can help women and girls protect themselves wherever they are, even when ISIS isn't around, they can protect against any men one way or another. At the beginning of the course, our community wasn't satisfied with it.

I had only five students in the beginning. Then my students got used to it, so they came more. Even though our people were against that [sort of] thing. I was the first girl who started boxing in Iraq and Kurdistan, and especially in camps… much objection was made. But I didn't give up on my goal; I said to myself I should teach other girls to learn boxing so that they give courses to others… Many of my students said that they were getting better mentally after being trained. They were tired mentally and psychologically before training. So, I taught them sports and boxing together. Three of my students were taking psychology medicine, but after joining the course they stopped taking medicine... I didn't consider myself as their coach, I was like a sister to them.

Sometimes I noticed that some of them had personal problems, that is why I wanted to help them talk. Many of them said, ‘yes we have problems’. And I told them, ‘I'm not going to force you to talk, but if you want to share that one day with me it's ok, I'm like your sister’... They told me everything about their personal lives, their pain. Thank God, that is my job to help them. If anyone needs my help I'm ready to do that wherever I may be... It's right that we all work for a living to earn money, but I'm ready to work for my friends for free.”