“It was while commuting to college that I began exploring ideas for safe travel for women after personally facing security issues. I researched extensively to find a way for women to commute without harassment and inconveniences,” said Zainab Khatoon, one of the founders of Dovely — India’s only bike taxi service for women, driven by women.
Zainab, along with her friend Masarrat and her siblings Obaidullah Khan and Uzma Khatoon, deliberated extensively and came up with the idea of running taxi bikes for women, where both the passengers and the service providers are women. Together they founded an app (Dovely) to cater to women and girls who want to travel safely in the city.
“‘DOVE’ is a bird, which represents peace and harmony, and ‘LY’ stands for ladies,” shared another founder, Uzma.
They launched the app on June 15, 2022, initially with very few users. However, they now have around 80-100 riders registered, with 20-25 working as full-fledged riders.
Zainab, who heads the company, personally interviews every candidate to ensure they have a valid license and can navigate Hyderabad’s busy streets. Their riding skills are also tested by a team of experts.
“All of the women who are registered with us share the same concern for women’s safety. Besides, they see this as an opportunity to earn income,” explained Zainab.
Most registered bikers are young women aged 18-50. Some are single mothers, seeking to support their families, while others are students — earning pocket money. Their passengers include working women, students and middle-aged women visiting relatives or doctors.
The initial stages were challenging, as many Hyderabad residents were unaccustomed to seeing women bikers, especially those wearing burqa (veil). Some questioned the young bikers why they needed to earn money by becoming drivers when there were other job opportunities. They perhaps overlooked the fact that many girls are passionate about riding.
“Once a woman passenger books a ride with Dovely, she often becomes a regular customer and subscribes to the app,” claimed Zainab.
“Many aunties give us lots of duas (blessings) after we drop them safely at their destination,” she said.
Uzma Khatoon, Zainab’s sister and co-founder of the firm, shared, “I am humbled to be part of many women’s stories and want to help them fulfill their passion through Dovely.”
One young woman, Tasneem (name changed), shared that she tried working with other delivery platforms but quit on the first day because she had to deal mainly with men. She said she feels safe and comfortable working with Dovely.
The founders claimed they get compliments for contributing to a safe commuting experience for ladies. “This feedback from our passengers and partners keeps us going. The feeling that we are empowering women in our own way and ensuring that at least 100 women travel safely every day makes us happy,” said Zainab.
A member of the Dovely team monitors rides, tracking the live location from pick-up to drop-off. However, some women are also unhappy due to the limited number of drivers and busy schedules. The Dovely team hopes to resolve this issue as they recruit more women drivers.
Currently, it provides services through WhatsApp and plans to launch the app on the Play Store after achieving the target of over 200 rides. The app is still being developed, and the four founders are funding their venture — taking baby steps for now.
Dovely operates at ‘zero’ commission, unlike other service providers — who charge drivers. The team feels they have a long way to go.
Currently, services run until 8:30 pm, but they may extend the time if more safety measures are in place for women commuting at night. In the future, they plan to expand to auto-rickshaws and cabs, all managed by women. They also aim to handle transport and logistics led by women.
The Dovely team is driven by the passion to empower women.
source: http://www.twocircles.net / TwoCircles.net / Home> Indian Muslim / by Nikhat Fatima, TwoCircles.net / June 03rd, 2024
Employment opportunities have dipped down drastically but students of Fullstack Academy have been placed in esteemed companies with jobs fetching as high as RS.7 lac per annum.
Fullstack Academy is an institute that imparts the right courses in software technology that are always in demand in the software industry.
In the words of the founder of Fullstack Academy Md Aijaz, “There is a huge gap between the IT industry and the academia. There are a lot of opportunities to build successful careers but the newly graduated youth lacked the necessary skills. We wanted to fill that gap, hence we started our academy.”
Md Aijaz , the founder of Fullstack Academy.
“Hardly 1% of the youth were employed in the top companies like cognizant, Microsoft, Mindtree, Infosys, HCL, Accenture, Skuad, TATA consultancy services and so on, explained Aijaz Ahmed, while talking to Muslim Mirror “More so in Hyderabad despite the fact that there are so many top multi nationals here. Some even have their Head Office in Hyderabad. But still we could see that there were no takers in our own city”, he added.
Abu Bakar , co-founder of Fullstack Academy, also owns a software company.
So, in order to ensure that the youth from the Muslim community are not left out, Mohammad Aijaz and Abu Bakar Aijaz started the Fullstack Academy.
The academy has been founded in the year 2019 by industry veterans who have more than 25 years of experience in Microsoft and Tech Mahindra. They wanted to ensure that the youth of the community are not lagging behind in terms of skills required in communication, spoken English, software skills. Students coming out of college lack the qualification or skills needed to crack the type of jobs that are in demand and land up in mediocre jobs.
But unfortunately within months of initiating this dream venture, the lockdown was announced. But instead of being disheartened by this, the duo went ahead with their plan and announced online courses. Interested youth began enrolling for the online classes and the academy functioned smoothly.
Today they have gone offline and admissions are on filling every batch. So far they have trained 800 Youth and placed 55% in top companies. Some have gone abroad to pursue higher studies armed with the courses from FSA with which they get good paying jobs while they continue their studies.
Most of the courses students going abroad do courses in programming and development area. These courses are in demand globally.
“Web application is the latest technology and in high demand with every company wanting to develop web applications. Fullstack Academy specializes in mobile app technology the resource of which is not commonly available” explained Mohammed Aijaz.
Another salient feature of this academy is that the trainers are working professionals who come and demonstrate the real time scenarios. This helps the students while applying for jobs. Every course offered by the academy has different professionals already employed in top positions in world class companies.
The courses offered by the Full Stack Academy that are the need of the present times for software industries can be broadly categorized are programming, MERN, cloud computing, Data science – predictive business analytics, Android App development, Amazon web services, UI/UX designing courses, Selenium Automation testing and many more.
Khaja Wasiq Mohiuddin, a student who passed out in December 2021 shared that he has been employed in Skuad with a salary of 7 lacs per annum, the highest so far among the students placed in jobs. “I took the training in MERN from Full Stack Academy and I had not even completed the course when I was interviewed and was selected by Skuad. After completion I joined them as developer. I received full support from the trainers and today I have made my parents happy with my achievement” said Khaja.
The students are not taught just the professional courses, Aijaz and Abu Bakar ensure that they are groomed for interviews and also learn to communicate in English which is another weak area of most of the students from the community.
Another student Ayesha Moiz who has been employed as Assistant system engineer at Infosys said, “ I received support from Fullstack academy not only when I was doing the course but even now when I am employed. I am in a probation period here and whenever I am stuck with some programming, I call up my Aijaz sir and seek his support to trouble shoot the problem. I am very happy with the training and assistance in job placement and I highly recommend Fullstack Academy, she told Muslim Mirror.
The students from economically poor backgrounds are provided with an opportunity to apply for scholarship from IMRC (Indian Muslim Relief and charities). The Full Stack Academy (FSA) facilitates a written exam for the applicants to qualify for scholarship from IMRC. After the written tests there is an interview after which qualifying students are assisted with scholarship wherein they pay just 25% of the fees while the IMRC pays 75% of the fees.
Students enroll here not just from Hyderabad but also from different states of India.
“Every time one of our students gets a placement in a coveted company, it is like we have climbed one notch of the high ladder of success. The success of our students is like our own success, it is as if we have bagged the job. Each success story fills our hearts with happiness and makes us want to better ourselves” shared Md Aijaz.
source: http://www.muslimmirror.com / Muslim Mirror / Home> Education> Positive Story / by Nikhat Fatima, Muslim Mirror / June 24th, 2022
Relief organizations of Hyderabad, run by Muslims, have come to the rescue of the state and offered help to fight the shortage of Oxygen.
A TCN Ground Report features some of them.
Amid a surge in Covid-19 cases in Hyderabad in the southern Indian state of Telangana and rise in deaths due to the virus, the severe shortage of oxygen, ventilators and beds in both the government and private-run hospitals exposed the shortfalls of the healthcare system of the state.
Reports said that many patients were turned away from the hospitals due to a shortage of beds and died in their homes. Those admitted to the hospitals died due to lack of oxygen supply and delay in oxygen tankers reaching them. This lead to hundreds of deaths in Hyderabad alone.
Reports also said that hospitals were overcharging Covid-19 patients. These factors contributed to many people choosing to opt for home treatment.
It was then that the relief organizations of the state, run by Muslims, came to the rescue and offered help to fight the shortage of Oxygen.
Talking to TwoCircles.net, Shiba Minai, an activist said, “I make at least 50 to 60 calls to get a bed for a patient”.
Shiba helps people by connecting them with groups, hospitals and organizations that have been helping patients with beds and oxygen facilities.
Shiba has been doing relief work since the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic by providing food for the homeless, migrants, poor people in the slums. She has also helped with the funeral services of the victims.
She said that a lot of people reach out to her during crisis time. To help these desperate families, she would seek financial help from friends and family members.
“I get calls from people who are unable to find a bed or oxygen if they are already in the hospital or are under home treatment. Then, I call up hospitals and once I get the right hospital, I then connect the patient or the attendant to that hospital,” she said.
Shiba said the work she does is exhausting. “Making several calls to hospitals that want to know how much can the patient be able to pay and meanwhile handling calls from attendants of patients is taxing,”.
Talking about an incident wherein a 45-year-old woman whose saturation levels dipped low and her family could not find a hospital with a bed, Shiba said that she tried her best but “the hospitals refused to admit her after coming to know that her oxygen levels were quite low and she had fewer chances of survival.”
The family of the patient roamed to 6 hospitals, who earlier had assured of the availability of bed refused to admit her once they saw the saturation levels. The woman was taken home where she later succumbed.
“I tried to help this lady from 9 p.m. till the wee hours of the morning when it was time for Suhoor (early morning meal during the Muslim month of Ramadan). Sadly, she could not be saved,” Shiba said in a sad tone.
Although Shiba has helped sixty persons with beds with oxygen facilities, what makes her sad is that the “number of patients who I could not help is higher than the ones I helped.”
Shiba is not alone in doing Covid-19 relief work. Like her, several organizations have helped Hyderabad overcome the Covid-19 crisis from the last year. This year too they have come forward to battle the oxygen shortage in the state.
‘Oxygen on Wheels’
Mohammed Asif Hussain Sohail, the chairperson of Sakina Foundation, who is popularly known as the ‘Hyderabad Hunger Warrior’ for feeding the hungry for more than 10 years, has been receiving close to 200 calls every day from patients who are being treated at home. He also gets calls from hospitals especially Osmania and Gandhi General Hospitals requesting him for oxygen facilities.
“The price of oxygen cylinders is quite high at Rs 30,000 and the cost of refilling has gone up to Rs 2500 which a common man cannot afford,” Sohail said.
Md Asif Hussain Sohail of Sakina Foundation
Sohail said that as hospitals are running out of oxygen and due to black marketing, he has to verify if the patient needs oxygen or not before helping.
“Sometimes, they don’t need oxygen and we have to counsel and advise them not to give in to their fear and explain to them that a needier person requires it more,” he explained.
Sohail claims that he has “spent more than Rs 10 lakhs from his pocket to buy cylinders and send them to the homes of the needy.”
“Every day, in Hyderabad itself, my Foundation has provided more than 200 free cylinders. We have reached out to at least 2000 people so far,” he said.
Oxygen on Wheels is another initiative of the Sakina Foundation. As part of this initiative, oxygen cylinders are provided to patients who are on their way to the city for treatment from their towns and villages.
“Many people were dying on the way to Hyderabad. Not being able to get proper treatment in their villages they would travel to advanced hospitals in the city. The patients would only be saved if they arrived on time and if the hospital had oxygen,” he said.
“I wanted to save lives so I came up with this idea to provide emergency oxygen cylinders on the highway,” Sohail said.
As soon as they receive an SOS call, his volunteers drive to the spot where the patient is and help him/her with the oxygen.
Sohail said that they have driven up to 200 kilometers to provide oxygen to a patient on the highway.
“Patients were coming not just from the districts of Telangana state but also from Bhopal, Maharashtra, Karnataka. We met them all on the highway and immediately helped them with the oxygen if their saturation levels were low,” Sohail said, adding, “Nearly 150 persons were helped on the highway.”
Sohail said that “love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries.” “Without it, humanity cannot survive,” he added.
700 people given oxygen aid by Helping Hand Foundation
With the oxygen crisis in the state, volunteers of the relief organization Helping Hand Foundation (HHF), headed by Mujtaba Aksari, have been at the forefront.
The group distributed a flyer with their contact numbers for people to seek help in cases of Covid-19 emergency. The group also provide help with giving decent funeral services to Covid-19 victims deaths irrespective of religion.
Mohammed Fareedullah, who heads the project told TwoCircles.net, “When we receive a call for help, our doctors consult them online and based on the doctor’s recommendation, if the patient needs oxygen, we advise the attendant to come to our godown and take the oxygen cylinder without paying any advance or rent.
A patient receiving oxygen help from HHF | Photo by HHF
Fareedullah said that the families of the patients just have “to pay the refilling charges.”
“The plant where we get the cylinders refilled have begun to charge double of what they used to charge earlier. But we charge the people a nominal amount,” he said.
“The cylinders provided by HHF are usually for home patients but if the patient develops complications and their saturation level drops despite the oxygen therapy then we help them reach the hospital where again our counsellors in the hospital help them with other needs. When the patient recovers and is discharged we ferry them home in HHF ambulances. If they do not recover the volunteers help the family with the last rites too,” explained Fareedullah.
Helping Hands Foundation owns about 15 ambulances which are free for all patients. The group has 100 cylinders and a luggage trolley to transport the cylinders to the houses of people who cannot come to their go down.
To date, HHF claims to have helped more than 700 people covering the entire old city and many other localities.
Humanity First Foundation: from feeding hungry to procuring Oxygen
Mohammed Shujatullah,founder of relief organization Humanity First Foundation has been feeding patients and their attendants at three government hospitals for the last 5 years.
One day when Shujatallah received a call requesting help with oxygen, he decided to buy cylinders and give them for free to patients and then refill the empty ones and help whoever needed them. “Prices had doubled for both the oxygen cylinders and for refilling but through donations to Humanity First, I continued helping people every day with the 110 cylinders we have,” he said.
Md Shujatullah of Humanity First Foundation checking oxygen cylinders | Photo by HFF
His organization has an ambulance, which carries the oxygen cylinders to hospitals and homes of patients.
In the month of Ramadan, Shujatallah said that his foundation received good donations and he managed to help as many people as was possible for him.
Patients at the gate of a hospital supported by SDIF | Picture: SDIF
‘Our motive to save lives keeps us going’
Another local initiative known as Social Data Initiative Forum (SDIF)founded by Azam Khan and Khalid Saifullah started oxygen services during the first wave of the pandemic with their stock of 15 cylinders.
During the second wave, as the oxygen crisis has only gone worse, the group has been adding to their stockpile of oxygen cylinders.
The founders said that they had to pay more than the normal price for both purchasing and refilling the cylinders.
“Our services are not restricted to just providing oxygen cylinders. We also set up an oxygen bank at Government notified Covid-19 hospitals where usually the poorest of the poor come to access health care. People from the rural parts come to Hyderabad with hopes of quality treatment and they face a lot of hurdles waiting to get admitted after already having travelled a long distance,” Azam Khan said.
“The waiting period at the hospital and the travel time further delays the process of the treatment, which is why we opted to help in the government hospitals,” he clarified.
In Gandhi Hospital alone, which is the largest Covid-19 hospital of Hyderabad, Azam Khan said they have “20 oxygen cylinders in circulation which are serving at least 400 patients per day.”
“This supply of oxygen is crucial to their recovery,” Khalid added.
Apart from the 20 cylinders, they have 100 more cylinders at the other two government-run Covid-19 hospitals of Hyderabad.
They said they have helped more than 100 people so far.
Azam Khan narrated an experience that made them realise the significance of their work.
The King Kothi Government hospital had requested SDIF to set up an oxygen bank.
“I felt we had to start the work immediately and even though it was Sunday, our team went to the hospital. As soon as we reached the hospital, we saw four dead bodies being carried away. We were told the hospital had run out of oxygen causing the death of these four persons. We immediately set up our oxygen cylinders. Later the doctors informed us that our timely help had saved three persons who were critical and would not have survived had we not reached on time. This experience both saddened us and also made us feel happy that we could at least save the lives of other three persons,” he said.
“Our motive to save lives keeps us going,” the duo said.
The SDIF is helped by two other charity organizations from Hyderabad namely Safa Baitul Maal and Access Foundation, who work in close collaboration with them.
Pre and post-Covid care given by Al Hamd Foundation
Al Hamd Foundation, a charitable trust that helps widows, students and the poor, took up Covid-19 relief operations during the last year’s lockdown.
Amid the ongoing second wave, the foundation is continuing with online consultations of patients with doctors.
When patients contact them online, they are connected to doctors who advise home treatment keeping in view the severe crunch in the hospitals and also the fact that many cases can be treated at home with proper medications and care.
Al Hamd Foundation Covid relief services
The foundation has provided home treatment to fifty-two patients, who had reported low oxygen levels.
The founder of Al Hamd Abdul Azeem Mohammed told TwoCircles.net that the treatment cost they incurred for each patient would have run up to Rs. 7 to 8 lakhs had they been treated in a hospital.
“The team of AL Hamd ensures that the patient does not panic and develops a strong will to fight the disease and survive. The team also helps with the oxygen cylinders, the medicines and regular monitoring by the doctor who visits the patient. At times when the patients are poor and the team notices that they need provisions apart from the medical assistance, Al Hamd provides the family members with rations as well,” Azeem said.
Al Hamd has given 300 oxygen cylinders and 6 oxygen concentrators to other organizations that are helping people affected with Covid-19.
They have four oxygen hubs and seven ambulances in Hyderabad-Secunderabad and a fifth one is coming up soon.
“We have ordered 25 oxygen concentrators from the UK which is likely to arrive by in the last week of May. Each oxygen concentrator of 5-6 litres costs around Rs 46,000. We have also ordered 5 C PAP machines that cure respiratory disorders. And since we are not a hospital, we intend to donate these C PAP machines to the hospitals where there are facilities to treat patient with respiratory disorders that are linked to Covid” explained Azeem.
“We also give post-Covid care by giving immunity-boosting drugs and foodstuff,” he added.
Al Hamd is run with funds from family and close friends.
50-bed oxygen therapy centre set up by Jamaat-e-Islami Hind
Well-known socio-religious organization Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) Telangana has also set up a 50-bed oxygen therapy centre in Wadi-e-Huda near Shaheen Nagar, Hyderabad. JIH’s sister concern Students Islamic Organisation (SIO) supports recycling the cylinders, rifling them, coordinating with other organisations for availability.
Post Script
To support Helping Hand Foundation, you can make a GooglePay donation here: 8125203286
With a doctorate in Islamic studies, Dr Rafat Seema is an ‘Aalima’ and has been active in lending support to social causes from her student days. She is the founder of NISA, a woman’s organization through which she reaches out to the underprivileged.
When scores of Rohingya refugees first came to Hyderabad many organizations came forward to help them with food grains and clothes. Rafat Seema was also part of these drives.
“But being a scholar, my thoughts were different,” she shared with TwoCirlces.net, “I felt these material things will only provide help for some time and the people who are offering help will also stop after some time. After all, how long will people help? One day these refugees will have to fend for themselves. So why not give these people something that will not be exhausted? Something that will be of use to them for always? It was then that I decided that I can teach them to read the Quran, to read and write Urdu and English.”
Even as other organizations that Rafat Seema is part of were conducting health camps for the Rohingyas, many of whom had external injuries and pains due to the tiresome journey and the hardships they went through in their attempts to escape the massacre, Seema was soothing their pains with her kind words and counselling.
Seema asked Shamshuddin, one of the Rohingyas who was in charge of the group, if the womenfolk would be interested to learn the holy Quran. He wholeheartedly agreed and even gave space for the classes in his small house.
“For the first class itself as many as 70 women of all age groups gathered and their faces were beaming,” recalls Dr Seema.
She began her weekly classes with the help of another volunteer from her organization as she could not manage the large group.
A class in progress at the refuge camp
Every week a volunteer accompanied her and several women made donations in the form of food grains, clothes and money. However, the volunteers would not come every day so she would take the class herself.
The trauma of the Rohingya refugees is unimaginable, she says, “Besides the food, clothes and medicines they needed some outlet to overcome. And the classes I took provided them with something to keep their minds occupied. Reading the Holy Quran had a soothing effect to calm their fears”.
After a year Dr Seema shifted her classes to another corner of the huge ghetto after realizing that many women needed the benefits of the class. She started a new batch in the house of Taha, another refuge, who helps the refugees by talking with donors and updating them about the needs of refugees.
After more than 3 years now, all the Rohingya refugees are all well settled in the pockets of the suburb of Hyderabad in Balapur, which is 15 kilometres from the main city.
Dr Seema’s students who are more than 100 are now able to read not just the Holy Quran but also the English alphabets, small words, they can add and subtract and write the numbers till 1000. The reason they picked up fast is she used to give them homework for the entire week.
“The interest of the women and the encouragement of their men is amazing. After the class, we talk about other issues. They tell me about their relatives who are in Bangladesh. Or about the marriages of the youngsters that have been fixed. Then I try to mobilize some fine clothes or a new set of cutlery for the marriage from the women of my organization,” Dr Seema said.
Dr Seema is not just their teacher but also their friend, counsellor, motivator and someone they can turn to in need of help.
For the other 6 days of the week, Dr Seema is busy with her organization Nisa Research and Resource Centre for Women, through which she creates awareness among Muslim women about their rights and helps them deal with their day to day problems.
She says women need to stand up for themselves and face the challenges without always depending on men.
She is also a director of another religious institute called Jamia Makarimul Akhlaq through which she helps children of the Rohingya refugees. The institute sends auto-rickshaws to the city once a week for half a day where the children are engaged in interactive sessions through which they learn to be worldly-wise. The children are provided with breakfast and lunch.
On other days the institute offers distance education to homemakers and dropouts.
Dr Seema ran a magazine by the name ‘Nisa’ to provide a platform for young female scholars but due to increasing costs, the magazine had to stop.
She also takes online classes in Arabic for women from all over the world. Her hands are always full of imparting education if not spending time with her grandchildren.
She is also associated with Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee and has actively participated in protests demanding justice for the innocent youth who were falsely implicated in the Makkah Masjid blast, in the murder case of Ayesha Meera and several other cases.
She also played an active part in helping the youth start afresh their lives after their acquittal in the Makkah Masjid case after their innocence was proved.
“If I can help someone even in a small way I feel happy. If we are privileged it becomes our natural duty to help those who need help. If not our existence has no meaning. A life without a purpose is meaningless. And my purpose is to help women realize their worth,” she said.
source: http://www.twocircles.net / TwoCircles.net / Home> Indian Muslim> Lead Story > TCN Positive / by Nikhat Fatima, TwoCircles.net / July 24th, 2020
17-year-old Shaikh Nasreen has won the gold medal in the Indian professional Boxing League tournament in Madurai, Tamil Nadu in January 2019. And this victory has gained her entry in the World Rural Sports Organisation’s Boxing Tournament at Toronto, Canada to be held in December 2019 in the ‘under 19 ‘category.
Nasreen, the youngest of the 3 children was inspired to learn boxing after watching Laila Ali on television when she was in class 8. At that time she used to go to play tennis with her friends and was thinking of excelling in tennis but now her interest changed to boxing. And when she told her father, “ Abba, I want to become a boxer”, he agreed just like that without any objection.
Nasreen’s father Shaikh Mastan and mother Shaikh Meera, are both tailors by profession. They run a tailoring shop on rent for ladies tailor and gents tailor in Rajahmundry, East Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh. Their 2 sons and a daughter are all students in college. Being from a lower middle-class family, it was not easy to educate for them to make ends meet and also ensure a good education to their children and also find a coach for their daughter.
Shaikh Nasreen with her parents
Mastan shaikh got the contact of Omkar Yadav, an Asian boxer in Hyderabad and soon the father-daughter moved to Hyderabad in 2014. And Nasreen underwent rigorous training.
Under Omkar, Nasreen won her first Gold Medal in the Telangana Boxing series in the lightweight category. “ At that time, I was happy with the state level Gold Medal and never thought one day I would qualify for International boxing.” She told TwoCircles.net
After that, she went on to win several gold medals at the state level events.
But her training was for only 6 months in Hyderabad as they were finding it difficult to meet the expenses in the city. Finding a place to stay, commute, meet the dietary expenses and schooling was proving difficult with only her mother working because her father was with her. So they moved back to their home town.
There again her father began looking for another coach and soon found one in Razole, the neighbouring town. And Nasreen once again continued her training under Chandrashekar a local boxer who taught her all the nuances and the fitness regime.
Many of her relatives and other Muslims in their town did not like Nasreen pursuing boxing as a career. They were of the opinion that this is not an ideal choice for a girl. But their conservative thoughts changed once Nasreen began winning. Says Nasreen, “ When they began to see me on TV taking part in the state level boxing events and saw that I was not only doing good but also emerging as the winner, they started ringing us with words of encouragement and appreciation. They used to tell me, ‘Shabash, you are making us proud. Keep going and make the whole country proud’”
In the last five years, Shaikh Nasreen has won 16 gold medals including 9 at the National level boxing in the lightweight category through her consistent practice.
Right now she is in Delhi coaching for her first International tournament at the Amjad Khan Boxing Academy under coach Naseem Ahmed.
Her idols are Mohammed Ali, Laila Ali and Mary Kom.
“I want to win at the International tournament and bring laurels to my country. I am inspired by Mary Kom who has won world championship 6 times” Nasreen told Twocircles.net
“But my training here is proving to be expensive and my parents are finding it very difficult to bear the expenses. Every month we have to shell out Rs.20,000/- and then there is the cost of my boxing kit.” She added thoughtfully.
She is looking for someone to support her for coaching.
She trains dedicatedly for more than 7 hours a day including her workout and is totally focussed on the gold at Toronto.
Right now she is awaiting her Intermediate results which are likely to be declared in May. She plans to continue her degree from Osmania University, Hyderabad through distance education.
Interestingly, her 2nd brother Sameer, though older than her, has recently taken up boxing. “ Inspired by me,” says Nasreen laughingly.
When she is free Nasreen likes to read. Her favourite book is ‘ Wings of Fire’ by APJ Abdul Kalam.
source: http://www.twocircles.net / TwoCircles.net / Home> Indian Muslim> Lead Story> TCN Positive / by Nikhat Fatima – TwoCirlcles.net / March 25th, 2019
