#Afghan youth escape game professional#

I am in contact with organisations who help me learn the language. I receive minimum social assistance to buy food. “I live in a refugee home in one room with up to three other men. I am in the asylum procedure, and I want to thank Switzerland for saving my health because I was in a bad state. I ran to Europe to look for a safe country for my future,” Hashime told Al Jazeera in a video message on WhatsApp. “After the beginning of the Taliban, I lost everything.

#Afghan youth escape game professional#

He fled to Switzerland, where he’s now awaiting a decision on whether he can stay. He’s unable to work or pursue his ambitions for a professional career while his claim is processed. He says his Afghan passport was burned by prison guards in Turkey. But unlike Arabzai, who competes for France, Hashime is essentially stateless. Hashime is unable to fight professionally in Switzerland while his asylum claim is processed Hashime was particularly at risk, having been a soldier in the Afghan National Army and, he says, one of former President Ashraf Ghani’s ceremonial guards. Hashime says fighters he knew were murdered. When the Taliban took over again in August 2021, MMA was banned, and fighters feared for their lives. He won multiple amateur belts, and he and his fellow fighters were greeted by crowds of young men on their return to Kabul from a competition in India. One of those fighters was Sayed Waris Hashime, 25, who until 2021 was thriving at club level in Kabul. While Arabzai picked up the sport after arriving in Europe, many of his compatriots used the two decades between Taliban rule to advance MMA, and their careers, in Afghanistan. “I had a temporary contract working at a local supermarket, but I had to stop because training for this fight was very intense. “The other fighters, they can be at home at ease with their families, have some work, but my life is very complicated,” he says. When discussing his prospects, the weeks, months and years of worry slowly cast a shadow over his face. He still has to find the money to pay for food, a place to live, a coach, travel to his appointments with French social services and medical expenses. The last time he fought was the defeat in Paris in January.

But it was cancelled at the last minute due to bad weather forecast in Béziers in the south of France, where the contest was to have been held in an open-air coliseum. Now, he’s just trained for two months for a fight that was meant to pay him $2,000 on June 3. His first fights earned him about $1,000. But even at this level, poverty remains a big threat. “Now I’m pro, I’ve fought for different organisations, and I want to be an advertisement for others as well – to show how important sport can be.” Arabzai goes on the attack against Kobaxidze, but he would ultimately lose the fight Īrabzai’s achievement is already gargantuan – from being homeless in Paris to reaching MMA’s professional ranks with his contests broadcast worldwide on the DAZN channel. Then when I started training, it was a great motivation,” Arabzai told Al Jazeera after a sparring session in Paris. “When I arrived in France, I was on the streets. Nine years after he left Afghanistan as a teenage refugee, failing to make a career as a fighter is not an option. He has no family to go back to, no settled home, no steady job. It’s a fate that can await any fighter in a sport where a split second’s lapse can make your punching power or your grappling skills utterly meaningless.įor Arabzai, whose professional record now stands at 4-3-0 after that loss in January, defeat hurts more than it does for most. Soon, the 24-year-old is chasing Georgia’s Nika Kobaxidze around the mat, only to lose in the third round by submission. Keep reading list of 3 items list 1 of 3 How athletics is helping India’s Siddi community gain recognition list 2 of 3 Afghanistan women’s football team flees to Pakistan list 3 of 3 Ban? No ban? Afghan cricket chief offers hope to women athletes end of list