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October 28, 2022
Entries for Beyond Sport’s sixth annual Courageous Use of Sport Award presented by WWE are being accepted through October 31. In celebration, we’ve been catching up with last year’s winners to give us an update on their community work and provide words of wisdom to those applying for the 2022 award. This week, we spoke to Sohaila Shojayie from Germany and Estelle Jean, Founder and Director at Yoga and Sport with Refugees.
Born in a refugee camp in Pakistan to an Afghan family, Sohaila has overcome many barriers and challenges in her young life, which launched her on a mission to “empower women through sports and to defend their rights.” While existing under extremely tough living conditions as she moved through several refugee camps, she eventually landed at the Malakasa camp in Athens, Greece. She lost her father to a treacherous sea crossing and stepped up to care for her family at a very young age with her mother and sister both suffering from severe mental health issues.
She eventually discovered Muay Thai and yoga through Yoga and Sport with Refugees (YSR) in 2019, a non-profit in Greece that uses sport and physical activity to help create healthy safe spaces for refugees. “I very clearly remember that she came directly to our gym space and asked if she could teach karate to boys and girls,” said Jean. “She also came to a self-defense class where she displayed her strength and technique and thereafter joined the kickboxing class where she was the only girl.”
Through martial arts and attending sessions at YSR, Sohaila quickly uncovered her love for training others at the refugee camp and especially women and girls who often weren’t comfortable training alongside men. “It became a very natural choice for Sohaila to become the coordinator for women’s activities at YSR,” said Jean. “She has a great connection with women and she knows how to encourage people. One of the challenges we had was having girls and women participate in mixed classes, but she succeeded. Many more girls joined the training in Athens because she was there as a coordinator.”
After almost two years with YSR, 17-year-old Sohaila moved to Germany where she’s now been for nearly a year. She also moved on from YSR, but “continues to inspire and motivate more girls and women to do sports,” says Jean who encourages Sohaila to keep being herself and keep showing the power of a woman.
Germany is substantially involved in taking in refugees in need of particular protection within the framework of the EU Resettlement Program. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Germany reported 1.24 million refugees and 233,000 asylum seekers in the middle of 2021, making it the biggest host country for refugees in Europe.
Sohaila explains that there is still a huge number of women and girls in the world who aren’t allowed to partake in any sports or physical activity, which is why her goal to empower and support women and girls to do sport remains unchanged. However, over the past year, she has also taken more of a focus on her schoolwork and martial arts training.
She joined the United Fighters Academy (UFA) in Münster, Germany and had her first kickboxing tournament fight last weekend. Although she didn’t win, Sohaila reiterated the importance of showing that girls can do martial arts too and that there is no winning without losing. She said that she is continuing to train to have more fights in the future.
“I’ve trained hard and in many difficult circumstances, no matter where I am or how. I even trained with the team inside a jungle when it was a lockdown and we didn’t have permission to go outside the refugee camp. I can never forget those days and it drives me every day when training at UFA,” she said.
Upon winning the 2021 Courageous Use of Sport Award, Sohaila had a chance to speak with WWE superstar Sonya Deville. “It felt great winning the award,” said Sohaila. “I was happy that my community was happy and it showed that hard work always pays off and to never give up on your goals.”
She advises those thinking about applying for this year’s award to believe in themselves, “you can do it and share your amazing skills with the sports world.”
Entries for the 2022 Courageous Use of Sport Award presented by WWE are being accepted through October 31. If you are from Canada, India, Saudi Arabia, the UK or US, click here to learn more and apply.
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