Catching your dreams by overcoming culturally-ingrained stereotypes can be a difficult thing to accomplish. But that’s exactly what boxing champion Bianca Elmir is attempting to do as she prepares for her first ever professional fight.
Australian Muslim Bianca, nicknamed Bam-Bam, wants to empower women through self-defense and is boxing her way through all sorts of obstacles to inspire other Muslim women to take up the sport. the 35-year-old Olympic boxer is about to take a massive leap in her career in the upcoming Capital Fight Show 13 on December 8 in Canberra. But Bianca’s path has been a difficult one as she navigates between varied aspects of her upbringing.
Her past has profoundly shaped the way she approaches her sport, family, culture, and faith. Her mother Diana Abdel-Rahman moved from Australia to Lebanon when she was 17, then eventually ended up in Saudi Arabia with her husband. After her parents broke up when Bianca was just two years old, she was taken to live with her father until her mother deemed it unsafe.
Bianca’s mother ‘kidnapped her’, drove to Beirut airport, got on a plane and flew to Melbourne with her, eventually being able to start a new life in Australia. Bianca was raised in the suburbs of Canberra where she experienced living in a predominantly non-Muslim community. She received just one card from her father each year.
At age 13 she returned to Lebanon to live with her grandparents for a year, under the guidance of her mother. She describes that time as a ‘life-changing moment’ where she underwent a profound cultural experience.
Bianca didn’t meet her father until she was 18 years old, have never seen pictures of his face before. By this point, she had already taken up kickboxing. While she was training for kickboxing, she had to sneak out to train because of the stigma attached to a Muslim woman being involved with contact sports.
After a successful career in kickboxing, Bianca transitioned to boxing as her preferred sport in 2009. Now Bianca devotes her life to advocating the connection between her sport and culture. She now hopes to continue backing a wider acceptance of Islam in the world. And she’s relishing the challenge. ‘You need to enjoy getting punched in the face in one way or another,’ Bianca told ABC.
‘It’s another day in the office. You go into training, you’re going to get punched in the face. ‘How you’re going to get punched… and whether you’re in a position to punch back is the difference to your sport as you grow as an athlete.’ Under the guidance of Australian Olympic boxer and coach Jamie Pittman, Bianca hopes she makes the Australian Commonwealth Games team and that her first professional fight isn’t far away.
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