Women’s Health UK – September 2019

Women’s Health SEPTEMBER 2019 | 111

year, aided by her contacts

within NGOs and on the ground,

centres were established in

three camps around Dohuk.

Sewing circles came first, then

adult literacy, English language

lessons and computing classes.

But the idea that Taban felt

most passionate about – boxing

• failed to get off the ground
  without the right instructor.
  She needed someone who could
  teach boxing basics while being
  sensitive to what the students
  had been through; who would
  understand that cultivating
  mental strength matters as
  much as mastering the moves.
  She stumbled upon Cathy
  during a late-night google and
  discovered that the trainer
  was already offering Boxology,
  a boxing-meets-CBT-meets-
  coaching programme. Like
  Taban, Cathy had experienced
  trauma, fleeing an abusive
  relationship in her late teens


• and fallen in love with boxing.
  ‘It empowered me,’ she tells
  WH. ‘It made me feel as though
  I could fight back when I needed
  it most and gave me a sense of
  real belonging. So, when Taban
  called me [in September 2018]
  to suggest working together,
  within minutes I was like, “Right,
  I’m going over there.”’ She did,
  and six months on, their shared
  vision has become a reality.
  In the cabin, Cathy leads
  the 12 women in a morning of
  basic boxing skills – learning
  the fighter’s stance and how to
  ‘roll’ away from an opponent’s
  punch. After breaking for
  lunch, three of the 12 return
  for teacher training. It’s Taban
  and Cathy’s way of delivering
  something truly empowering; at
  the end of this four-day training
  programme, they will leave,
  and the three newly trained
  instructors will continue their
  work by running two-hour

‘Learning to fight was a form

of therapy – a way that they

could release their anger’

Top: Cathy Brown,

husband Greg and a

translator provide

a Boxology schooling

Above left: Rwanga

c a mp i n n o r t h e r n Ir a q

Above right: Ready

to fight

Left: Class is in session

Inset, above: Trainer

Cathy Brown

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sessions, twice-weekly, for their camp.

Thanks to money raised by the Lotus

Flower Foundation, these trainers –

selected on the basis of an aptitude for

the sport, experience of major trauma

and a high number of dependents,

respectively – will earn the same

hourly rate that Cathy commands at

luxe gym Third Space.

STRENGTH TRAINING

The trauma many carry into the

training sessions is acute. The female

Yazidi population were sold into sex

slavery, being forcibly and invasively

examined to determine their virginal

status and witnessing their relatives

being murdered. Young girls attempted

suicide and maimed themselves to avoid

being sold to ISIS fighters, which would

inevitably lead to violent rape, often

daily. One of the three trainee boxing

teachers was sold as a slave to ISIS

and can’t be named for legal reasons.

The others are 18-year-old Hussna

and 38-year-old Nadifa.

Nadifa’s journey into the camp was

perilous. She recalls running on foot

from her village, her little sister’s hand

in hers. She tried to help her disabled

uncle and sister-in-law – who had given

birth only hours earlier – get into one

of the last cars leaving the village, before

hiding out in the unforgiving mountains

for over a month. ‘For the first month

after we arrived at the camp, I didn’t go

out in public. I just wasn’t comfortable

talking to other people,’ Nadifa tells

WH via a translator. Managed by the

Kurdistan Regional Government

alongside the UN, the camp is protected

and, by most accounts, safe. There’s

just enough food and water, provided

by the World Food Programme, for

the people living there. But over and

above meeting basic needs, they have

little and life can seem like little more

than existence – treading water.

Nadifa doesn’t have any children,

but she’s cared for her siblings and

ailing mother all her life, after her father

remarried. Cook, clean, care, repeat; her

life follows the same pattern as many in

the camp. In the day-to-day, there’s little

scope for individual expression, growth

or pride redressing; this is just one way

in which learning to fight empowers

her. ‘Boxing helps me, not only when

I’m inside that room, but to have more

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