“Girls don’t wear track pants and do taekwondo.”
“Girls don’t have a future in this sport.”
These were the words hurled at Shanaz Parveen when she first started However, all these statements were mere white noise to young Shanaz, who remained focused on her passion.
Today, she is the first woman at a national-level Taekwondo meet! “I kick, I knock off my opponent with my hijab on!” she proudly says. It was a school taekwondo session that sparked Shanaz’s interest in the sport. There was no looking back for her since.
“I trained for 10 hours a day, and won several awards both national and international,” she says.
While she faced constant pressure from her relatives and saw her friends quit, it was Shanaz’s mother who became her backbone. “She moved with me to Kargil for my training. We braved the tough weather of Ladakh and limited financial resources to be where I am today,” she says.
She also became the first woman from Ladakh to represent India at the World University Games in China. Additionally, as a black belt in Taekwondo, she also trains girls in
While her parents do everything they can to support their daughter, if you wish to sponsor her training, you can. Watch this short video to learn how:
(Edited by Khushi Arora)
“Girls don’t have a future in this sport.”
These were the words hurled at Shanaz Parveen when she first started However, all these statements were mere white noise to young Shanaz, who remained focused on her passion.
Today, she is the first woman at a national-level Taekwondo meet! “I kick, I knock off my opponent with my hijab on!” she proudly says. It was a school taekwondo session that sparked Shanaz’s interest in the sport. There was no looking back for her since.
“I trained for 10 hours a day, and won several awards both national and international,” she says.
While she faced constant pressure from her relatives and saw her friends quit, it was Shanaz’s mother who became her backbone. “She moved with me to Kargil for my training. We braved the tough weather of Ladakh and limited financial resources to be where I am today,” she says.
She also became the first woman from Ladakh to represent India at the World University Games in China. Additionally, as a black belt in Taekwondo, she also trains girls in
While her parents do everything they can to support their daughter, if you wish to sponsor her training, you can. Watch this short video to learn how:
(Edited by Khushi Arora)