Women in Sport Foundation

Women in Sport Foundation in association with Girls in Gloves
presents a fundraiser for Afghan women’s boxing team


WOMEN’S BOX-A-THON
Saturday 8th June 2013 @ BodyStudio

Three different levels to challenge your skills. Take yourself that step further and FIGHT FOR PEACE!

A team of young Afghan women boxers, Sadaf Rahem, Fahima Mohammad and Shabnam Rahman
are invited to the UK in July to gain experience in coaching, training and sparring to pursue their dreams to go to
the Rio games as the first female boxers from Afghanistan.

They are winning International medals, but at present they are only able to train 3 days a week in a gym under the seats of a stadium where public executions previously took place. This event will help raise funds for this trip.
Women in Sport are also working with the CPAU in Kabul to help improve their training conditions so in the long
term they have their own facilities where women can go not only to box but to exercise.
At present, the foundation’s legal team is organising the women’s visas.

For more information, please see our fund page http://www.gofundme.com/1yeti0

Please download our Box-a-Thon entry form @ www.bodystudio.co.uk or www.girls-in-gloves.com

BodyStudio, 89a Rivington Street, EC2A 3AY
RSVP to info@bodystudio.co.uk and kate.westlake@me.com.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Margaret Pope, founder Women in Sport

Women in Sport are going to Delhi 5th of may for one week to train the girls and reapply for there visas with the help of our legal team . We need to raise more funds for this trip and also to help the girls move there training facility in Afghan to a new location where they then can train more , have more privacy and other parents will let there daughters join the team as it will be for women only.

Afghan female boxers' UK visa refusal is 'at odds with Olympic legacy'

Row sparked by UK Border Agency's refusal for three Afghan boxers to visit Britain as part of International Women's Day


Alexandra Topping
The Guardian, Friday 8 March 2013 15.54 GMT

Sadaf Rahimi one of the three Afghan boxers refused entry to the UK. Delegates from Women in Sport, who organised the trip, are instead planning to visit the boxers in Afghanistan. Photograph: Musadeq Sadeq/AP
It was meant to be a cross-cultural celebration of International Women's Day, a chance for women who had defied social taboos in their own country to meet their supporters and fans in Britain.

But the UK Border Agency in Delhi refused visas to the Afghan female boxing team on Wednesday evening, sending them back to Afghanistan without the chance to compete against female boxers in the Britain in a move that has been labelled "at odds with the ideals of the Olympic legacy".

Now a delegation from Women in Sport who organised the trip – which was to culminate in several bouts between Afghan and British fighters on Saturday – are instead planning to visit the women in Kabul to train and educate the fighters with skills that could help other budding female sportswomen in the country.

Sadaf Rahimi, Fahima Mohammad and Shabnam Rahman were due to arrive in Britain to mark International Women's Day on Friday.

Foreign Office officials in Kabul had supported the trip and the women had provided letters of identification as well as a letter of support from the Centre of Peace and Unity. But despite the visa applications being reconsidered, they were refused entry for a second time.

It was a "bitterly disappointing" situation, said Margaret Pope, founder of Women in Sport, which raised funds for the women's visit. "We are made to believe that avenues, especially here in the UK, are opening up to people such as Sadaf Rahimi, Fahima Mohammad and Shabnam Rahman, who are trying to pursue their sporting dreams. There has been much talk of the legacy of the Olympics and rights for women in sport, but today, it is not the case for these women."

They were refused entry because they could not show their financial circumstances in Afghanistan and concerns from the high commission that they may not return to Afghanistan after their visit to the UK.

Melanie Brown, a former aid worker who has made a documentary about the young women, said the boxers had already overcome huge hurdles to pursue their chosen sport in their own country only to be thwarted by bureaucracy.

"They have continued boxing, reaching excellence and representing their country internationally. However, in the face of bureaucracy they are powerless. This visa refusal will come as a bitter disappointment to them," she said. "They may as well have a big tickbox saying: 'Are you from Afghanistan? Don't bother.'"

Debbie Mills, who met the three when she was working as a security consultant protecting diplomats in the Middle East, and is part of the team responsible for the UK visit, said by refusing the trip the Border Agency was standing in the way of other young girls in Afghanistan learning from their experience.

"The whole point of the visit was to train the girls and their coach, not just in boxing qualifications but also key life skills such as first aid so that they could return to Afghanistan more qualified and equipped to train other women and encourage development which would potentially lead to financial independence," she said.

A UK Border Agency spokesperson said it did not comment on individual cases: "Every visa application is considered on its individual merits and in line with the immigration rules. It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure they provide the required evidence to support their application. In exceptional circumstances we will review applications but if the appropriate information is still not provided we are left with no option but to refuse."