What Does It Mean to Be a Sportswoman in Saudi Arabia?

[00:00:00] To fight like a girl means to be proud of the strength within you and to not feel the need to compare yourself to the opposite sex because we are just as powerful and just as capable as men and we should embrace that strength. Hashtag Fight Like A Girl.

[00:00:23] It's a very powerful, strong and assertive hashtag. It's maybe even Saudi's own Me Too movement. If you were to log in into Instagram right this moment and search hashtag fight like a girl, it would take you to a page called flag boxing.

[00:00:39] The description on the page would tell you that it is a gym in Saudi Arabia. But it's not any gym. It is Saudi Arabia's first female combat gym. And that's exactly where I found Hala Alhamrani whose voice you just heard.

[00:00:54] But Hala wasn't quite the Burqa clad, hijab clad Saudi woman that I imagined her to be. She was delivering punches and kicks on a punching bag. Seeing her, I knew I just knew I had to get her on this episode of Have Voice Will Talk.

[00:01:10] This is what she had to say. My name is Hala Alhamrani. I'm 41 years old. I have a son who's 8 years old. I came back from the US and I decided to teach combat sports. I had been practicing combat sports for 20 years.

[00:01:24] It was something that I was very passionate about and continued throughout the many years to be passionate about. Consider this a country where up until earlier this year women were not allowed to go see a football match. They weren't allowed inside football stadiums.

[00:01:41] They weren't even allowed to go on a jog in the morning. Forget sports, forget going on a jog. Women in Saudi Arabia are considered both mentally and physically weaker than men. Can you imagine how difficult it would be for Hala and women like Hala to pursue a passion

[00:01:59] like tick boxing in a country like this? And that's exactly what she told me. When I was opening in my current location, I wanted to procure the license for the gym. This was three years ago. I was finding it very difficult to obtain the license.

[00:02:16] There was a lot of red tape that I had to go through and there were a lot of unnecessary requirements that they needed for me to open the gym. So I decided not to obtain the license.

[00:02:29] Hala's determination is nothing if not inspiring and things are changing for women in Saudi Arabia. Saudi women have now taken part in the Olympics. FIFA has in fact removed the ban on hijab. Wait, what? Is that the time already? It's 7.30 am you guys.

[00:02:47] And while lazy bums like me would just snooze their alarm and go back to sleep, it's time for Hala to head to the gym. It's going to be a long and action packed day and she's going to be free very late in the evening.

[00:02:59] With such a hectic schedule, I wondered what Hala does in her spare time. What did she do to wind down and just chill? And how have those activities changed over the years?

[00:03:09] For a time I spend as much time with my eight year old son as I possibly can. I love going to the beach. I go to the beach quite often.

[00:03:17] I have my own practice so I practice any type of sport I want in my spare time as well. Back in my day when I was younger, what we didn't have as much available to us as they do now. Malls are such a big thing here.

[00:03:30] People tend to go and walk around. But there's a lot of activities as well now available to women here. Sports in general is becoming big. They can now go to a football stadium if they like and watch a football game and that happened recently.

[00:03:44] So things are becoming more and more available to women. Do you guys want a lesson in work-life balance? I definitely do balance work and motherhood. My son is my life and so is my job. And so I try to balance both equally.

[00:03:59] Sometimes one gets in the way of the other but that's okay. For the most part, I found a nice balance between being a mother and being a business woman. That's quite the supermom right?

[00:04:12] Besides being a successful business woman at the age of 41, which by the way gives me some hope that there is still time for me to achieve something. She by the way is also a major major social media influencer with several thousand followers on Instagram alone.

[00:04:28] Social media has played a huge role getting more females in Saudi Arabia interested in practicing combat sports. I started teaching about 15 years ago but not until about four years ago when I started putting my journey on social media that people start to take interest to become

[00:04:44] aware of what I do. There will be part of the population that is unhappy about the changes happening in Saudi Arabia but I think what we have going for us is that 70% of the population is 30 years

[00:04:55] or younger so that's going to be easier for the changes that are occurring. The younger generation has been maybe exposed more towards the West through social media and so forth. So I think that will be one of the positives with all the changes.

[00:05:12] There you have it guys that was Hala Alhamrani, kickboxer, fitness trainer and supermom talking about what it means to be a sportswoman in Saudi Arabia right now. Stay tuned for our next episode where we'll be chatting with another unique guest and

[00:05:25] if you still haven't checked out our last episode what are you guys waiting for?