I haven’t posted anything really about my time in Pakistan where I visited after Mongolia. It was a routine but educational experience, characterized by daily trips to the gym and absorbing the local culture of Lahore in Punjab state at night. There is one story I’d like to share.
I was a guest coach at Synergy MMA in Lahore, Pakistan. It a gym run by American expat, Bashir Ahmed. There, I met Atif, an 18 year old young man from Mingora, which is located in the somewhat autonomous Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan near the Afghan border.
If you have heard or seen the documentary “He named me Malala ” on Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yusufzay you may be familiar with the region.
Coincidentally, Atif was classmates with Malala herself. He had moved to Lahore to pursue his dream of becoming a professional MMA fighter. He is an ethnic “Pathan”, one of a few different minorities within the nation. Racial profiling exists everywhere in the world it seems, and in Pakistan the Pathan’s are (unfairly) associated with terrorism. Below is a clip I took of another Pathan MMA fighter, Alamger of the Synergy stable, randomly having his identity card checked by a policeman:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im_hioFT3SU&w=560&h=315]
I lived with Atif, Alamger and other athletes in a dormitory style apartment for almost a month.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfuhMnOq-Hw&w=560&h=315]
Shortly before I arrived, there was a bomb attack in a different part of Lahore. Have you ever (as an American) taken your safety (in the USA) for granted? Imagine what it is like living with the daily RANDOM possibility of death. Anyway, because of the heightened fears there was not much to do. On occasion we would have an outing to a shopping or historical area of the city. At night, after the days training, I worked on my blog and exchanged stories with the other fighters. This is when Atif shared a poignant experience of his childhood.
As a young child Atif had the experience of witnessing the Taliban perform a beheading in his village. Afterwards, they had placed a notice on the body saying that nobody was to disturb the body until a designated time (lest they suffer the same fate). My own guess was that this was some type of public display to stoke the fear in the locals. The family of the beheaded man had to helplessly wait until that designated time to collect the body for burial.
His story made me appreciate the peace and freedom I enjoy in the USA.
Some things will never be understood unless experienced. I will never fully understand Atif or some of the other people I met. Around the world, we may not speak the same language, eat the same food, share the same culture, or live under the same political conditions (as Atif’s story shows), yet we share the same experience through sport- A bond of a shared (competitive) suffering.
Thanks for reading! As always please subscribe/share/comment enjoy in general!
-The Rover
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Are there opportunities for Atif to compete professionally in Pakistan, or will he need to travel to another country?
Thanks for commenting! Atif has actually had a few professional fights already in Pakistan. My understanding is that there is only one major MMA promotion: PAK MMA (http://www.pak-mma.com/).
The promotion consists of mostly local and South Asian Fighters.He’s had a few opportunities to train AND fight abroad in Europe and USA, but has been denied visas each time.