With the topic of gender equality being spoken about loudly in almost all races, religions and cultures, it’s a stigma and world understanding that women are usually the weaker of the sexes almost in all fields. But as of recent times, the world view is changing and more and more women are out to conquer everything they see, taking it all by storm one establishment and field at a time. Women of the Arab world, specifically Saudi Arabia are pushing harder to prove themselves and are succeeding; the sky is the limit.
Sports is a field known in the Kingdom as a male dominant field, but in recent years, more female athletes, fitness trainers and fitnatics are popping up, breaking that “male dominant” stereotype. One Saudi female is not only breaking that one stereotype, she is also breaking another by being the only Saudi female kickboxing and boxing trainer in the Kingdom as far as anyone knows. Halah Al-Hamrani, a 38-year-old mother of one, is a strong-willed woman who believes that all women must challenge themselves and push their limits. She’s doing what she does best, box, and she loves it!
Arab News caught up with Halah and spoke to her about her love for boxing.
Your choice to box and kick box is outside the known “exercise” regimen the Saudi women are used to, how did you progress throughout the years and why did you choose this path?
After graduating high school in Jeddah, I moved to San Diego and majored in Environmental Studies and minored in International Relations. I had already been doing martial arts since the age of 12, starting with karate, then moving on to different arts. I have a black belt in jujitsu too. When moving to the States, I decided that I wanted to learn how to “throw a proper punch,” something you don’t find in martial arts. I’ve been training myself in boxing and kick boxing for a long time, starting with Muay Thai, a very specific form of kick boxing, the art of eight limbs (characterized by the combined use of fists, elbows, knees and shins) and it’s the only form of kick boxing that involves knees and elbows. After coming back to Saudi Arabia, as a woman, I wasn’t able to find work in my field, so after two years I decided to start personal training. I got my certificate from NASM and have been training clients for 10 years now.
Was it difficult to train clients in boxing and kick boxing in Saudi Arabia, since it’s considered to be a male dominant sport?
I’m constantly surprised with the amount of attention this gets from the female population; I receive countless e-mails from women wanting to learn how to box. That’s their biggest attraction. It’s new and interesting for them and they do it as a form of a workout and I find it incredible how many women are excited about this sport.
When it comes to form and technique, is there a difference between kick boxing and boxing?
After practicing Muay Thai for six years, I met an amazing boxing instructor in the US and I decided to focus more on boxing. There is a very big difference when it comes to form and technique, with Muay Thai you learn how to throw really powerful kicks with your knees and elbows but the punches aren’t very pretty. It’s more about beating your opponent down, but with boxing it’s about understanding how to beat that opponent out. It’s more of a dance which I’ve started to fall in love with it and I continued with that for four years. Conditioning is pretty much the same for both kick boxing and boxing but technique can be varied from one who has trained in boxing first, then kick boxing, it will be harder to grasp the understanding of using both your lower body and upper body instead of a punch but easier if it was the other way around. The styles are different.
What type of other exercises do you incorporate in boxing and kickboxing to help increase your balance?
I did some calisthenics, which is body weight strength training and got attracted to yoga through that. To me yoga had postures that required more core strength and balance. I like to challenge myself and a.m. willing to try out different poses on my own to find that balance through the training I did with calisthenics. Yoga is a great addition to my workout, it helps with my flexibility in kicks, get some peace and serenity on bad days and helped a lot with my balance as a boxer.
Can you please walk readers through your classes?
Usually we start with a 5-minute warm up, moving on to light weight to concentrate on approaches and technique so they are able to strengthen their shoulders and after that the hard intensity cardio starts with the heavy bag. After the heavy bag there is conditioning such as pushups, jump squats, sit ups and abs training, ending with some stretching to cool down. The classes are between an hour and a half.
Many women have their doubts and are self-conscious about their body image, their ability to perform effectively and succeed in their goals in boxing. How do you approach such a person and motivate them after their realization that boxing is a tough sport?
Every student of mine would have a moment or two of doubts. I think what makes them push forward and continue on is realizing that they are getting better at it. I’m their cheerleader, I direct them and positively reinforce them. But if a student comes in defeated and is already intimidated by it, it’d be hard for me to veer them into the right direction with words, it’s their progression and ability to push through the workout that helps them. I never force my students to do something they’re not able to do, everyone starts off with their own level of strength and my job is to direct them through the training and allow them to realize their potential at the end of the day. Boxing and kick boxing is a mind set.
What is your philosophy in exercise and health?
There are things that need to be understood about attaining a healthy lifestyle. It’s a misunderstanding that “dieting” is what being healthy is, I don’t believe in calling it a “diet”. First, it shouldn’t be incorporated with “lifestyle” because dieting is something temporary, lifestyle is a lifetime choice. If everyone makes the time to include some kind of exercise such as walking or jogging and decides to cut out unhealthy foods such as sugars and processed goods, then that’s a lifestyle choice. To be healthy is a mindset, it’s not a strict regimen depriving oneself from everything, it’s ok to have a cheat meal every now and then and that balances everything out. Consistency is the key.
It’s a common fact that everyone wants to lose weight STAT. What’s your response to that?
It sickens me to see so many young girls who go through extreme measures to just be skinny and there is no need for it what so ever. It’s difficult and I understand when some girls come to class dreading attending and going through my tough workout but they inspire me when they go through with it. They do it, they commit to it and they push themselves past their limits and that is my joy in teaching. Skinny is not an option, healthy and fit is the goal each woman has to strive for. If I was able to help a girl learn how to do a pull up in a month’s time, that is an accomplishment for her and me.
Some might say that boxing and kickboxing isn’t for girls, what’s your opinion on that?
That’s not true, girls are just as strong as men in boxing and kick boxing. It’s a stereotype and it’s unacceptable. All it needs is learning the right moves and techniques, commitment and dedication and have the right mindset to be able to perform. There is no such excuse as “boxing is for men only”.
Why choose the title “Fight Like a Girl”?
Because it’s boxing and it’s seen as a male dominant sport. It’s supposed to be ironic but not really. “Fight Like a Girl” is not supposed to be a negative connotation, instead should be something positive because with training, women can be just as strong as men, you can do it just the way they can and be proud of it too.
Would you ever want to compete professionally?
That would have been my dream, but unfortunately they don’t accept women past a certain age to enter the Olympics for boxing. If I really wanted to, I could probably try professional boxing but I would be starting at the age of 38 which is usually not done so I doubt I will ever have the chance. InshaAllah I hope to find a Saudi girl that I can train and maybe give her the chance to be the first.
Laila Ali, the daughter of legendary heavy boxer Mohammed Ali, the best known sports figure in the world, got into the ring in 1999 and showed the crowd how it’s done. She has won many titles and gained fame as not only the daughter of the legendary boxer but also on the basis of her skills. She told how her father advised her on every negative thing associated with boxing but has never told her “don’t do it” instead he asked her to show him her best pre-fight stare down and then pretended to throw jabs at each other.
Women are the backbone of society, the strength of a woman’s will can never be tethered, Halah proved it and so can many more. Be sure to follow Halah on her Instagram page FLAGBOXING. For appointments, please e-mail the trainer at flagboxing@gmail.com.
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Email: life.style@arabnews.com
One Saudi woman shows how to ‘Fight Like a Girl’
One Saudi woman shows how to ‘Fight Like a Girl’
Strauss’ ‘Blue Danube’ is beamed into space as Vienna celebrates with a concert
- The European Space Agency’s big radio antenna in Spain beamed the waltz into the cosmos Saturday
- Operators aimed the dish at Voyager 1, the world’s most distant spacecraft more than 24 billion kilometers away
VIENNA: Strauss’ “Blue Danube” waltz has finally made it into space, nearly a half-century after missing a ride on NASA’s twin Voyager spacecraft.
The European Space Agency’s big radio antenna in Spain beamed the waltz into the cosmos Saturday. Operators aimed the dish at Voyager 1, the world’s most distant spacecraft more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away. Traveling at the speed of light, the music was expected to overtake Voyager 1 within 23 hours.
The Vienna Symphony Orchestra performed the “Blue Danube” during the space transmission, which actually sent up a version from rehearsal. It’s part of the yearlong celebration marking the 200th birthday of Johann Strauss II, who was born in Vienna in 1825. The Strauss space send-off also honors the 50th anniversary of ESA’s founding.
Launched in 1977 and now in interstellar space, each of the two Voyagers carries a Golden Record full of music but nothing from the waltz king. His “Blue Danube” holds special meaning for space fans: It’s featured in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi film “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
Bee alert: US police warn after 250 million insects escape
- Roads in the region, which nestles the border with Canada and is just 30 miles from Vancouver, have been closed as bee experts help with the clean-up
LOS ANGELES, United States: A truck crash that set 250 million bees free has sparked warnings in the western US, with police telling people to avoid swarms of the stinging insects.
The accident happened in Washington state in the far northwest of the country, when a semi trailer carrying a load of hives overturned.
“250 million bees are now loose,” wrote Whatcom County Sheriff on its social media page.
“AVOID THE AREA due to the potential of bee escaping and swarming.”
Roads in the region, which nestles the border with Canada and is just 30 miles from Vancouver, have been closed as bee experts help with the clean-up.
While some beekeepers aim only to produce honey, many others rent out their hives to farmers who need the insects to pollinate their crops.
In Marseille, a shadow becomes art in Banksy’s latest street mural
- On Friday, the elusive British street artist confirmed the work by posting two images on his official Instagram account
MARSEILLE, France: The lighthouse appeared overnight. Painted on a wall tucked away in a quiet Marseille street, its beam aligned perfectly with the real-life shadow of a metal post on the pavement. At its center, stenciled in crisp white, are the words: “I want to be what you saw in me.”
Banksy had struck again.
On Friday, the elusive British street artist confirmed the work by posting two images on his official Instagram account — without caption or coordinates. Fans quickly identified the location as 1 Rue Félix Frégier, in the Catalans district of Marseille’s 7th arrondissement, near the sea.
Since then, crowds have gathered at the site. Tourists snap photos. Children point. Locals who usually walk past the building stop to take a closer look.
There is no official explanation for the phrase. But its emotional pull is unmistakable — a quiet plea for recognition, love or redemption. Some speculate it references a country ballad by Lonestar. Others call it a love letter. Or a lament. Or both.
The image is deceptively simple: a lone lighthouse, dark and weathered, casting a stark white beam. But what gives it power is the way it plays with light — the real and the painted, the seen and the imagined. The post in front of the wall becomes part of the piece. Reality becomes the frame.
Marseille’s mayor, Benoît Payan, was quick to react online. “Marseille x Banksy,” he wrote, adding a flame emoji. By midday, the hashtag #BanksyMarseille was trending across France, and beyond.
Though often political, Banksy’s art is just as often personal, exploring themes of loss, longing and identity. In recent years, his works have appeared on war-ravaged buildings in Ukraine, in support of migrants crossing the Mediterranean and on walls condemning capitalism, Brexit, and police brutality.
The artist, who has never confirmed his full identity, began his career spray-painting buildings in Bristol, England, and has become one of the world’s best-known artists. His mischievous and often satirical images include two male police officers kissing, armed riot police with yellow smiley faces and a chimpanzee with a sign bearing the words, “Laugh now, but one day I’ll be in charge.”
His work has sold for millions of dollars at auction, and past murals on outdoor sites have often been stolen or removed by building owners soon after going up. In December 2023, after Banksy stenciled military drones on a stop sign in south London, a man was photographed taking down the sign with bolt cutters. Police later arrested two men on suspicion of theft and criminal damage.
In March 2024, an environmentally themed work on a wall beside a tree in north London was splashed with paint, covered with plastic sheeting and fenced off within days of being created.
Despite the fame — or infamy — at least in Marseille, not everyone walking past noticed it. Some didn’t even know who Banksy was, according to the local press.
On Instagram observers say this Marseille piece feels quieter. More interior.
And yet, it is no less global. The work arrives just ahead of a major Banksy retrospective opening June 14 at the Museum of Art in nearby Toulon featuring 80 works, including rare originals. Another exhibit opens Saturday in Montpellier.
But the Marseille mural wasn’t meant for a museum. It lives in the street, exposed to weather, footsteps and time. As of Friday evening, no barriers had been erected. No glass shield installed. Just a shadow, a beam and a message that’s already circling the world.
Ex-assistant testifies Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs sexually assaulted her and used violence to get his way
- “I was going to die with this. I didn’t want anyone to know ever.”
NEW YORK: Sean “Diddy” Combs ‘ former personal assistant testified Thursday that the hip-hop mogul sexually assaulted her, threw her into a swimming pool, dumped a bucket of ice on her and slammed a door against her arm during a torturous eight-year tenure.
The woman, testifying at Combs’ sex trafficking trial under the pseudonym “Mia,” said Combs put his hand up her dress and forcibly kissed her at his 40th birthday party in 2009, forced her to perform oral sex while she helped him pack for a trip and raped her in guest quarters at his Los Angeles home in 2010 after climbing into her bed.
“I couldn’t tell him ‘no’ about anything,” Mia said, telling jurors she felt “terrified and confused and ashamed and scared” when Combs raped her. The assaults, she said, were unpredictable: “always random, sporadic, so oddly spaced out where I would think they would never happen again.”
If she hadn’t been called to testify, Mia said, “I was going to die with this. I didn’t want anyone to know ever.”
Speaking slowly and haltingly, Mia portrayed Combs as a controlling taskmaster who put his desires above the wellbeing of staff and loved ones. She said Combs berated her for mistakes, even ones other employees made, and piled on so many tasks she didn’t sleep for days.
“It was chaotic. It was toxic,” said Mia, who worked for Combs from 2009 to 2017, including a stint as an executive at his film studio. “It could be exciting. The highs were really high and the lows were really low.”
Asked what determined how her days would unfold, Mia said: “Puff’s mood,” using one of his many nicknames.
Mia said employees were always on edge because Combs’ mood could change “in a split second” causing everything to go from “happy to chaotic.” She said Combs once threw a computer at her when he couldn’t get a Wi-Fi connection.
Her testimony echoed that of Combs’ other personal assistants and his longtime girlfriend Cassie, who said he was demanding, mercurial and prone to violence. She is the second of three women testifying that Combs sexually abused them.
Cassie, an R&B singer whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, testified for four days during the trial’s first week, telling jurors Combs subjected her to hundreds of “freak-offs” — drug-fueled marathons in which she said she engaged in sex acts with male sex workers while Combs watched, filmed and coached them.
A third woman, “Jane,” is expected to testify about participating in freak-offs. Judge Arun Subramanian has permitted some of Combs’ sexual abuse accusers to testify under pseudonyms for their privacy and safety.
The Associated Press does not identify people who say they’re victims of sexual abuse unless they choose to make their names public, as Cassie has done.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and racketeering charges. His lawyers concede he could be violent, but he denies using threats or his clout to commit abuse.
Mia testified that she saw Combs beat Cassie numerous times, detailing a brutal assault at Cassie’s Los Angeles home in 2013 that the singer and her longtime stylist Deonte Nash also recounted in their testimony. Mia said she was terrified Combs was going to kill them all, describing the melee as “a little tornado.”
The witness recalled jumping on Combs’ back in an attempt to stop him from hurting Nash and Cassie. Mia said Combs threw her into a wall and slammed Cassie’s head into a bed corner, causing a deep, bloody gash on the singer’s forehead. Other times, she said, Combs’ abuse caused Cassie black eyes and fat lips.
Mia said Combs sometimes had her working for up to five days at a time without rest as he hopped from city to city for club appearances and other engagements, and she started relying on her ADHD medication, the stimulant Adderall, as a sleep substitute.
Combs, with residences in Miami, Los Angeles and the New York area, let Mia and other employees stay in his guest houses — but she wasn’t allowed to leave without his permission and couldn’t lock the doors, she testified.
“This is my house. No one locks my doors,” Combs said, according to Mia.
Mia didn’t appear to make eye contact with Combs, who sat back in his chair and looked forward, sometimes with his hands folded in front him, as she testified. Occasionally, he leaned over to speak with one of his lawyers or donned glasses to read exhibits. Mia kept her head down as she left the courtroom for breaks.
She testified that she remains friends with Cassie.
Rescued giant moths emerge from cocoons in Mexico’s sprawling capital
MEXICO CITY: Two moths the size of a hand, their wings patterned with brown and pink around four translucent sections, mate for hours hanging from a line alongside cocoons like the ones they emerged from just hours earlier.
“When I get here and find this, I jump with delight,” said María Eugenia Díaz Batres, who has been caring for insects at the Museum of Natural History and Environmental Culture in Mexico City for nearly six decades.
The mating pair of “four mirrors” moths as they’re popularly known in Mexico, or scientifically as Rothschildia orizaba, are evidence that the museum’s efforts to save some 2,600 cocoons rescued from an empty lot were worth the trouble.
The moths, whose numbers have fallen in Mexico City due to urbanization, have cultural relevance in Mexico.
“The Aztecs called them the ‘butterfly of obsidian knives,’ Itzpapalotl,” Díaz Batres said. “And in northern Mexico they’d fill many of these cocoons with little stones and put them on their ankles for dances.”
These cocoons arrived at the museum in late December.
“They gave them to us in a bag and in a box, all squeezed together with branches and leaves, so my first mission was to take them out, clean them,” Díaz Batres said.
Mercedes Jiménez, director of the museum in the capital’s Chapultepec park, said that’s when the real adventure began since they had never received anything like this before.
Díaz Batres had the cocoons hung in any place she thought they might do well, including her office where they hang from lines crisscrossing above her table. It has allowed her to watch each stage of their development closely.
The moths only survive for a week or two as adults, but they give Díaz Batres tremendous satisfaction, especially when she arrives at her office and new moths “are at the door, on the computer.”
So she tries to help them “complete their mission” and little by little their species recovers.
