Growing up in Pakistan’s Punjab province, Fatima Zahra had few female boxing role models in her own country. She found one across the border in India’s MC Mary Kom, whose journey inspired her to take up the sport and eventually become Pakistan’s first female Commonwealth Games boxing medallist.The 22-year-old from Sargodha in Pakistan’s Punjab province won a bronze medal in the women’s 60kg event at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, becoming the first Pakistani woman boxer to stand on a Commonwealth Games podium.After her medal-winning campaign, Fatima said the person who inspired her to take up boxing was India’s six-time world champion Mary Kom.“I am inspired by India’s Mary Kom,” Fatima told news agency PTI after securing her bronze medal.Born into a poor farming family, Mary Kom overcame financial hardship, social resistance and limited resources to become one of the most successful boxers in history. She secretly trained in her early years while helping her family in the fields before winning six world championship titles, an Olympic bronze medal, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games gold medals, and five Asian Championships.Fatima said the 2014 Bollywood film based on Mary Kom’s life became a source of motivation when she started boxing.“I used to watch the film made on her life. When I started boxing I used to watch that movie and train. I have a lot of respect for her and inshallah one day I will become like her. I hope I can meet her,” Fatima said.Like Mary Kom, Fatima also had to overcome opposition from her family before she could continue with boxing.“My background is not that strong. My basic coach taught me everything,” she said, as quotes by PTI.“My family was against boxing. They would not let me go for training but I fought with them and continued training.”She said her family’s attitude has changed completely over the years.“And now they are more tense than me for my fight and competition,” she said with a smile.Fatima hopes her medal will encourage more girls in Pakistan to take up sport and follow their dreams.“I was also just another girl. I joined boxing, trained and worked hard. I want other girls who are told to work at home to come out like me.”
