Return to News

Abbie Trayler-Smith – Afghan Boxers

Commissioned by Oxfam, Abbie photographs Afghanistan’s first women’s boxing teams, the Afghan Amateur Women’s Boxing Association.

“Afghan women are brave,’ says Saber Sharifi, coach of Afghanistan’s first female boxing team. ‘Some people say it is very dangerous for girls to do boxing. Others say Afghanistan is not ready for this. These girls are proving those people wrong.”

See more of Abbie’s portfolio here

Abbie Trayler-Smith Sadaf Haruzel, 17, a member of the Girls's Boxing TEam in Kabul, photographed at The National Stadium. Olympic Dreams: Fighting for Peace Boxing is making a comeback in Afghanistan after it was banned by the Taliban Regime. For the first time in the history of Afghanistan the country also now has an Afghan Amateur Women’s Boxing Association, financed and established by CPAU under the auspices of The Afghan Olympic Federation. Afghanistan’s first female boxing team has fought hard to be accepted in Afghan society. A group of teenage girls, aged 14 to 20, train 3 times a week at the dingy National Stadium in Kabul, once used for Taliban executions. And now, with Women’s Boxing tipped to become an Olympic sport, the girls are fighting for their chance to travel to the UK as part of Afghanistan’s first female Olympic boxing team for London 2012. . Shabnam, 17, is one of three sisters in the team. She has been boxing since she was 11 and has already taken part in an international competition in Vietnam. She says: “I want to win a medal for myself and for my country. Afghanistan has been through a lot during my lifetime. I want to make my country proud. Why shouldn’t girls do it? In Afghanistan now we can do anything” Saber Sharifi a fit 50-year-old who became Afghanistan’s boxing star in the 1980s by winning a silver medal at the 1982 Asia Games in Delhi, has become a champion of the programme and its coach. “Afghan women are brave,” he said. “We want our girls to do sports. Some people say it is very dangerous for girls to do boxing. Others say Afghanistan is not ready for this. These girls are proving those people wrong.”
Abbie Trayler-Smith Olympic Dreams: Fighting for Peace Boxing is making a comeback in Afghanistan after it was banned by the Taliban Regime. For the first time in the history of Afghanistan the country also now has an Afghan Amateur Women’s Boxing Association, financed and established by CPAU under the auspices of The Afghan Olympic Federation. Afghanistan’s first female boxing team has fought hard to be accepted in Afghan society. A group of teenage girls, aged 14 to 20, train 3 times a week at the dingy National Stadium in Kabul, once used for Taliban executions. And now, with Women’s Boxing tipped to become an Olympic sport, the girls are fighting for their chance to travel to the UK as part of Afghanistan’s first female Olympic boxing team for London 2012. . Shabnam, 17, is one of three sisters in the team. She has been boxing since she was 11 and has already taken part in an international competition in Vietnam. She says: “I want to win a medal for myself and for my country. Afghanistan has been through a lot during my lifetime. I want to make my country proud. Why shouldn’t girls do it? In Afghanistan now we can do anything” Saber Sharifi a fit 50-year-old who became Afghanistan’s boxing star in the 1980s by winning a silver medal at the 1982 Asia Games in Delhi, has become a champion of the programme and its coach. “Afghan women are brave,” he said. “We want our girls to do sports. Some people say it is very dangerous for girls to do boxing. Others say Afghanistan is not ready for this. These girls are proving those people wrong.”
Abbie Trayler-Smith Olympic Dreams: Fighting for Peace Samiya Assisiaj, 16, member of the Women's Boxing Team, Kabul. Boxing is making a comeback in Afghanistan after it was banned by the Taliban Regime. For the first time in the history of Afghanistan the country also now has an Afghan Amateur Women’s Boxing Association, financed and established by CPAU under the auspices of The Afghan Olympic Federation.Afghanistan’s first female boxing team has fought hard to be accepted in Afghan society. A group of teenage girls, aged 14 to 20, train 3 times a week at the dingy National Stadium in Kabul, once used for Taliban executions. And now, with Women’s Boxing tipped to become an Olympic sport, the girls are fighting for their chance to travel to the UK as part of Afghanistan’s first female Olympic boxing team for London 2012. . Shabnam, 17, is one of three sisters in the team. She has been boxing since she was 11 and has already taken part in an international competition in Vietnam. She says: “I want to win a medal for myself and for my country. Afghanistan has been through a lot during my lifetime. I want to make my country proud. Why shouldn’t girls do it? In Afghanistan now we can do anything”Saber Sharifi a fit 50-year-old who became Afghanistan’s boxing star in the 1980s by winning a silver medal at the 1982 Asia Games in Delhi, has become a champion of the programme and its coach. “Afghan women are brave,” he said. “We want our girls to do sports. Some people say it is very dangerous for girls to do boxing. Others say Afghanistan is not ready for this. These girls are proving those people wrong.”
Abbie Trayler-Smith Olympic Dreams: Fighting for Peace Masuma Seper, 15. “I’m learning English so I can get a scholarship to America and train to be a doctor. In Afghanistan, it’s difficult for us girls because people don’t want us to leave the house. When we come to training, we have to be home by 5. Otherwise our relatives say that we are bad girls for being outside the home after 5.” Boxing is making a comeback in Afghanistan after it was banned by the Taliban Regime. For the first time in the history of Afghanistan the country also now has an Afghan Amateur Women’s Boxing Association, financed and established by CPAU under the auspices of The Afghan Olympic Federation. Afghanistan’s first female boxing team has fought hard to be accepted in Afghan society. A group of teenage girls, aged 14 to 20, train 3 times a week at the dingy National Stadium in Kabul, once used for Taliban executions. And now, with Women’s Boxing tipped to become an Olympic sport, the girls are fighting for their chance to travel to the UK as part of Afghanistan’s first female Olympic boxing team for London 2012. . Shabnam, 17, is one of three sisters in the team. She has been boxing since she was 11 and has already taken part in an international competition in Vietnam. She says: “I want to win a medal for myself and for my country. Afghanistan has been through a lot during my lifetime. I want to make my country proud. Why shouldn’t girls do it? In Afghanistan now we can do anything” Saber Sharifi a fit 50-year-old who became Afghanistan’s boxing star in the 1980s by winning a silver medal at the 1982 Asia Games in Delhi, has become a champion of the programme and its coach. “Afghan women are brave,” he said. “We want our girls to do sports. Some people say it is very dangerous for girls to do boxing. Others say Afghanistan is not ready for this. These girls are proving those people wrong.”
Abbie Trayler-Smith Olympic Dreams: Fighting for Peace Fatima Rezaee, 16, member of the Women's Boxing Team in Kabul. Boxing is making a comeback in Afghanistan after it was banned by the Taliban Regime. For the first time in the history of Afghanistan the country also now has an Afghan Amateur Women’s Boxing Association, financed and established by CPAU under the auspices of The Afghan Olympic Federation.Afghanistan’s first female boxing team has fought hard to be accepted in Afghan society. A group of teenage girls, aged 14 to 20, train 3 times a week at the dingy National Stadium in Kabul, once used for Taliban executions. And now, with Women’s Boxing tipped to become an Olympic sport, the girls are fighting for their chance to travel to the UK as part of Afghanistan’s first female Olympic boxing team for London 2012. . Shabnam, 17, is one of three sisters in the team. She has been boxing since she was 11 and has already taken part in an international competition in Vietnam. She says: “I want to win a medal for myself and for my country. Afghanistan has been through a lot during my lifetime. I want to make my country proud. Why shouldn’t girls do it? In Afghanistan now we can do anything”Saber Sharifi a fit 50-year-old who became Afghanistan’s boxing star in the 1980s by winning a silver medal at the 1982 Asia Games in Delhi, has become a champion of the programme and its coach. “Afghan women are brave,” he said. “We want our girls to do sports. Some people say it is very dangerous for girls to do boxing. Others say Afghanistan is not ready for this. These girls are proving those people wrong.”
Abbie Trayler-Smith Olympic Dreams: Fighting for Peace Boxing is making a comeback in Afghanistan after it was banned by the Taliban Regime. For the first time in the history of Afghanistan the country also now has an Afghan Amateur Women’s Boxing Association, financed and established by CPAU under the auspices of The Afghan Olympic Federation. Afghanistan’s first female boxing team has fought hard to be accepted in Afghan society. A group of teenage girls, aged 14 to 20, train 3 times a week at the dingy National Stadium in Kabul, once used for Taliban executions. And now, with Women’s Boxing tipped to become an Olympic sport, the girls are fighting for their chance to travel to the UK as part of Afghanistan’s first female Olympic boxing team for London 2012. . Shabnam, 17, is one of three sisters in the team. She has been boxing since she was 11 and has already taken part in an international competition in Vietnam. She says: “I want to win a medal for myself and for my country. Afghanistan has been through a lot during my lifetime. I want to make my country proud. Why shouldn’t girls do it? In Afghanistan now we can do anything” Saber Sharifi a fit 50-year-old who became Afghanistan’s boxing star in the 1980s by winning a silver medal at the 1982 Asia Games in Delhi, has become a champion of the programme and its coach. “Afghan women are brave,” he said. “We want our girls to do sports. Some people say it is very dangerous for girls to do boxing. Others say Afghanistan is not ready for this. These girls are proving those people wrong.”
Abbie Trayler-Smith Olympic Dreams: Fighting for Peace Boxing is making a comeback in Afghanistan after it was banned by the Taliban Regime. For the first time in the history of Afghanistan the country also now has an Afghan Amateur Women’s Boxing Association, financed and established by CPAU under the auspices of The Afghan Olympic Federation. Afghanistan’s first female boxing team has fought hard to be accepted in Afghan society. A group of teenage girls, aged 14 to 20, train 3 times a week at the dingy National Stadium in Kabul, once used for Taliban executions. And now, with Women’s Boxing tipped to become an Olympic sport, the girls are fighting for their chance to travel to the UK as part of Afghanistan’s first female Olympic boxing team for London 2012. . Shabnam, 17, is one of three sisters in the team. She has been boxing since she was 11 and has already taken part in an international competition in Vietnam. She says: “I want to win a medal for myself and for my country. Afghanistan has been through a lot during my lifetime. I want to make my country proud. Why shouldn’t girls do it? In Afghanistan now we can do anything” Saber Sharifi a fit 50-year-old who became Afghanistan’s boxing star in the 1980s by winning a silver medal at the 1982 Asia Games in Delhi, has become a champion of the programme and its coach. “Afghan women are brave,” he said. “We want our girls to do sports. Some people say it is very dangerous for girls to do boxing. Others say Afghanistan is not ready for this. These girls are proving those people wrong.”
Abbie Trayler-Smith – Afghan Boxers
Abbie Trayler-Smith – Afghan Boxers
Abbie Trayler-Smith – Afghan Boxers
Abbie Trayler-Smith – Afghan Boxers
Abbie Trayler-Smith – Afghan Boxers
Abbie Trayler-Smith – Afghan Boxers
Abbie Trayler-Smith – Afghan Boxers