Fatima Zahra: Boxer with beatific smile and killer instinct
A portrait of the record-making athlete as she aims to put Pakistan women's boxing on the map
“The truth is I’m not afraid of the punches that I sustain during the fight or training, now I enjoy them, it means I’m in the game,” Pakistan’s record-making boxer Fatima Zahra revealed what it feels like to pursue a passion-driven career in a society that deems it to be unsuitable for a girl striving to carve her niche on a global stage after entirely conquering the national circuit.
Fatima is currently preparing for the 2026 Commonwealth Games that will take place in Glasgow from July 21.
This will be her first international outing since the Islamic Solidarity Games 2025 in November, when she found herself at a crossroads.
The 21-year-old has an angelic smile that can brighten up any room she steps into, and she has the ferocity that can stun her opponents when they least expect it in any ring.
Like she demonstrated at the Islamic Solidarity Games in November 2025, where she registered her first international win and also became the first Pakistani woman to win a medal at that event in the process, while opening the tally for her country on the medal table in Riyadh.
She stunned her Algerian opponent Hamda Melissa 5-0 in a one-sided -60kg quarterfinal to confirm Pakistan’s bronze medal at the games, a feat no Pakistani woman had pulled off before.
A desperate prayer
The journey to get an international medal was a long one.
Even though she remained undefeated at the national circuit in the featherweight category ever since she began boxing in 2021, it was like a desperate prayer that was answered after a rosary of losses at global events.
“I remember before going to Riyadh for the Islamic Solidarity Games I had a very heavy heart and a very distressed mind,” Fatima told Lost on the Desk.
“It was a point in my life where I was very disheartened because I hadn’t been able to deliver the results I had hoped for at the international stage.
“I felt people were critical of my performance and it was such a dark place to be in.
“But I also recognised that it was another opportunity and I must seize it. If it didn’t work out, I thought I might quit boxing at this level.”
Fatima became, like most champions do, self-critical while she looked for answers.
Nicknamed the Eagle for her agility, Fatima has been slowly cultivating a reputation as an icon.
She is pursuing a successful career in boxing as a woman with limited resources and a dire lack of infrastructure, but also bravely battling the pervasive social stigma attached to the sport.
She had momentarily doubted her own achievements that included her becoming an undisputed national champion for consecutive years, carving her place at the 2024 Paris Olympics qualifiers, which were also the World Boxing Championships in Italy, participating at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, and qualifying for the Youth World Championship in Spain.
“I always remember this quote by my personal coach, Raheel Adnan, ‘one needs to defeat a champion to become one’, and I really took it to heart.
“So the moment I stepped inside the ring for my quarterfinal bout at the Islamic Solidarity Games, I knew what it could be.
“It was a perfect bout for me because everything just clicked. The referee began a countdown for my opponent just a few seconds into the first round; it was encouraging. My opponent was muscular and strong, and I just fought that bout with all the passion that I could muster in my being.
“My punches and combos were landing the way they should and I was in the flow, and when the judges gave the unanimous decision in my favour, I got very emotional. It had taken everything out of me to get to this point.
“I was over the moon, excited, and that win brought me so much hope and a sign that I was on the right path.”
Fatima recalled even Algerian boxers congratulated her, while most athletes in the Pakistani contingent were not fully aware of her achievement.
She almost made another record for Pakistan, but lost the semifinal against Uzbekistan’s Odinakhon Ismoilova 3-2 after a close fight.
It was a lesson that echoed the axiom she imbibed from her coach, “You only become champion after defeating champions”.
It was a bronze but she took it as a win that buoyed up her hopes for the future.
She fought freely and more confidently than ever before, and she overcame an internal barriers that were preventing her from a podium finish.
Never succumb to any pressure
Fatima’s best weapon is her right hand jab, and she made sure that she became adept at the 10-punch combinations during the practice to ensure that she can cause maximum damage to her opponent during the bouts.
At the Islamic Solidarity Games, she felt that she was able to execute it well in both of her fights.
“I made sure that I didn’t succumb to any pressure, and I performed with confidence against my Uzbek opponent; it was so close. A loss is a loss, but the fact that the result was a split one was a positive I took with me, and that I was able to execute my best combination,” explained Fatima.
The cleverest trick to find confidence
When asked what she does to mentally stay strong before her bouts, she said that mostly she listens to patriotic songs to get into the spirit, and often she would imagine herself as the victor, as a figure that has won a battle for her country, because ultimately, boxing, for her, is a way to serve her nation.
“This ritual helps me and gives me at least 80 percent of the confidence that I need to perform,” said Fatima with seriousness congealed around a hint of mischief.
But in all fairness, looking back at her performance, she feels that moving up to the 60 kg weight class made a huge difference for her as opposed to the previous 57kg.
Fatima is a tall girl by Pakistani standards, standing at 5 feet 6 inches; shedding weight to 57 kg had been an added struggle in the ring for her.
“My natural weight is 60 kg upwards, and at times competing in 57 kg events made me weak, be it national or international, but when I competed in 60 kg, I felt good, I felt like myself, and I feel I can turn this bronze medal from the Islamic Games to a gold medal in the international events to come if I can get more support from the government,” reflected Fatima.
How it all began in Sargodha
In the summer vacations of 2018, a young girl in Sargodha was taken by a sport, a passion that she felt she needed to pursue, much to the chagrin of her mother, but a delight to her father, karate black-belt Saqib Raza.
“It all started with a three-month vacation in 2018. I was in school, and first saw a game of boxing.
“It was something that just took over me, but at the time I didn’t know how to train for it. We have a small house, and at first it was just a fun activity, a time-pass, but I kept thinking about boxing, and my parents, especially my father, could see how interested i was in it.
“So he asked me if I really wanted to continue boxing seriously, and I replied positively. We started to train with my coach Raheel at his home.
“You must understand that we are from a working-class family. I didn’t have shoes or gloves. I couldn’t even afford my kit, but I started training because it felt good, and I must say that my coach gave me the shoes, the gloves, and the kit, which really helped. I trained there with my elder sister who is also a boxer now,” said Fatima with immense appreciation for her mentor and coach.
Social Isolation
But this did not bode well with Fatima’s relatives.
Fatima and her sister were going against the grain; they were girls, and in a patriarchal society, girls do not go out and fight. They do not put themselves in a position that may affect the way they look; the girls are not meant to be strong; they said; the girls needed to be more feminine and submissive.
Sadly, the social pressure drove Fatima to quit boxing for a year and six months.
“It was rough. Lots of bitter and cutting comments from my relatives came our way about my choice to become a boxer. It was all nasty and negative.
“As girls, we are told more about the things that we can’t do compared to the things that we can. I’m so grateful to my family, especially my father, who supported me through this time.
“Even now I see nasty comments under the TikTok reels that I post on my social media pages, and I had to learn it the hard way to ignore such negativity.
“My love for boxing is greater than their hate for the girls who box. I left the sport for a year and a half. I stayed away. No boxing for me.
“But then I returned to it, because that was my calling, and it was harder not to box than to box,” recalled Fatima.
Fatima returned to the fray with more zeal than ever, as if she had built an appetite for it in her time away from the ring and the gym.
She relentlessly trained and took the gold medal at the DHA Boxing Championship in the 60-kg event; it was her first competition after her return.
From 2021 onward, Fatima has been a force to be reckoned with, utterly dominating the national championships and shining at the National Games.
“Once I returned, I made sure that I trained regularly, without missing a session, and I kept competing, and I’m happy that I still haven’t lost on the national level,” said Fatima, nonchalantly.
She used to compete for the Pakistan Air Force departmental team at the junior level.
It was coach Raheel’s help and guidance that had landed her the contract with an institution that could provide her with regular income and opportunities to compete.
Fatima was soon picked by Pakistan Army, one of the two biggest departmental sides in domestic sports in Pakistan. The other one is Wapda.
Major Irfan Younis, who is also the secretary general for Pakistan Boxing Federation, saw the potential in Fatima, and she delivered on her promise to do her best for the team.
“She is an asset for Pakistan, so far Pakistan Army have helped her and the Pakistan Boxing Federation is also ensuring her participation in all the international events, but we can only do so much.
“We need the support of the government to facilitate more international tours and training for her,” added Younis. “Fatima Zahra was hired by the Army, and they are helping with her training the best they can. They are also sponsoring her as well.”
For the last three years, she had been an Army athlete, and the Army provides her with facilities, a stipend, and opportunities to compete abroad.
“Fatima came to me in 2018, and I could see right away that she has the makings of a champion,” coach Raheel reminisced. “She was tall, had a strong build, and was so spirited that I had to train her.
“She was so dedicated to the sport at such a young age.
“When she came in, I tested her like I would test other kids. Sometimes I would leave the kids on their own after basic sessions just to see how well they take instruction and how long they stick around, because a lot of them just come in for fun or just to look cool, and very few stay for the long haul.
“I saw this hunger in her to improve, and I decided to train her. She has been an excellent athlete.
“Even after all these years, Fatima is so determined to improve that she came to my gym to train on Eid last month, before going to the Army/national camp for the Commonwealth Games,” said Raheel, who started his academy in 2018 after retiring from the game. He has his RBC Boxing Academy where he presently trains 50 athletes for the national circuit.
“Sargodha, my city, is more like a village and we had no academy for boxing, so I made it my mission to start one, and today we have several national gold medallists from my club, including Fatima.
“Fatima’s parents are my neighbours, and I must tell you that she is coming from a very humble background, but she is a star despite the odds stacked against her.”
Self-starter
Taking initiative is a superpower, and Fatima is blessed with it.
Her ability to train regularly on her own has served her well.
Even to a point of concern when she would go out at 2:00 am to run at a ground in front of her house just so that she could keep herself fit for boxing.
“It is very tough to be a girl in our society, but I really didn’t think about the risks and dangers of defying the norms when I was younger.
“I had been a tomboy for most of my life, and I took it upon myself to train during the time I couldn’t go to the gym, and I was getting a lot of hate from people.
“I would go out at 2:00 am and run so that no one could see me train. It was a time that I would disguise myself as a boy.
“In our society, it is absolutely necessary to become strong (mentally and physically), and I learned that quickly. For example, I had no fear that anyone could harm me even at 2:00 am which can be unsafe, but of course I stopped doing that once I got to train in a proper gym again, and I am not a tomboy anymore, but I do have a lot of passion for boxing.
“My mother sometimes hates it when I get hurt, especially the injuries on the face. I get cuts on my nose and around the eyes. I used to hide them from my family, but one can’t hide something like that for too long.
“Sometimes when I train and spar with boys I do pass out, all lights go out from my sight and I fall down after sustaining a punch, but at this point I enjoy it, it feels like I’m in the game, and I often tell my mother that Allah is my guardian, He will keep me safe, and that there is nothing to fear,” said Fatima, who has also returned to her education and began her Associate Degree Program with focus on sciences.
“I know I have the drive; I can see that, let’s say, my sisters depend on their coaches to train all the time, while I can do it on my own, I’m motivated on my own. “
Family plays a huge role in Fatima’s life and career.
She is the second eldest of four siblings, and has an older sister who boxes too, and the younger brother and sister are also aiming to become boxers.
She finds endless support in her father and a grounding presence in her mother.
“My family is very attached to me, and they have given me a lot of strength through thick and thin, from financial issues to social pressure, and everything in between,” she added, with the knowledge that her family is carrying her dream of putting Pakistani women’s boxing on the map too.
Tough lessons at international level
Fatima had to endure many ups and downs in her short but impactful career so far; she recalled that at the Asian Games 2022, she almost didn’t compete as there was a problem with her dress code few minutes before the bout, and she got confused over the rules at her debut at the games.
In that first and last bout, she lost to an Uzbek opponent who was world number two at the time.
She then regrouped her spirits to fight at the Olympic qualifiers in Italy, and there she met with disappointment as well in 2023. At 19, she faced South Korea’s Hyejeong Jin, 28, in the 57kg event, and the bout had to be stopped by the referee.
Fatima was one of the two women boxers who represented Pakistan in Italy at the 2024 Olympic qualifiers. The other one was Laura Akram, who is based in the United Kingdom.
She had more to prove in 2025, especially at the international level after she was declared the best woman boxer at the National Boxing Championship in February of that year.
In August, Fatima got the chance to visit China again with a robust Pakistani squad consisting of six women and seven men at the 3rd Belt & Road International Boxing Gala.
She was happy for her best friend, Ayesha Mumtaz, who became the first woman from Pakistan to win an Asian medal (silver), but Fatima had to settle for another loss.
Improved technique
This was also a turning point as her personal coach, Raheel, finally saw the mistakes that Pakistani athletes were making. He sought a solution for them by exchanging notes with other coaches at the event that featured 26 countries.
“Fatima displayed an improved performance at the Islamic Solidarity Games because she finally understood how to respond to attacks from the opponent properly. Like other Pakistani athletes, Fatima, too, was great at offence, but the defence was weak.
“I figured out that one of the major weaknesses in our boxers was when we were at the Gala. Our athletes were struggling in their footwork and response, so I went to different coaches, and they, very generously, helped me understand more about coaching techniques. We had a 10-day training camp there too,” explained coach Raheel.
The improvement helped her to cement her top spot in Karachi at the National Games in December to wrap up the year on a high.
Eyes on international glory
Fatima’s focus is to win more international medals.
Like coach Raheel believes Pakistani boxers can win accolades at the Olympics, Fatima is eyeing the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games qualifiers.
“I’ve told everyone that my eyes are set on international events,” said Fatima, who is preparing for the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.
“My ultimate goal is the LA Olympics qualification, and I want to perform well at the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games too.
“Among girls, we have so many amazing athletes. I believe we can do great things, but we need support from the government; we need money and exposure. And only with the proper help from the state can we get gold medals across the board,” said Fatima.
When it comes to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Fatima is expecting tough competition from the Indian boxers.
“I feel at the Commonwealth Games the ultimate competition would be the Indian team; if I beat their boxers then I will be among the favorites for gold,” she predicted.
She has been training at Army facilities for more than a month now.
She said the athletes are training in two sessions; one is for conditioning and the second one for technique, as the Commonwealth Games are scheduled to start on July 22 and they are racing against time.
As far as the competition at the Olympic qualification is concerned, she feels it would be harder this time compared to the Paris Olympic qualifiers.
“The competition would only become tougher, it was challenging in the previous qualifiers that I participated in, now European countries, others like the USA and India are all working very hard on their boxers, especially for the Olympic qualifiers.
“With all the new talent I’ve seen in the world events, it wouldn’t be easy to qualify for the LA Olympics, but it can be done with correct support and resources,” said the Pakistan Pro Green feather weight belt holder.
Commonwealth Prep in full swing
“For now, we are fully preparing her for the Commonwealth Games,” said Younis, the Pakistan Boxing Federation Secretary, as he is also managing sports for the Pakistan Army.
“Our eyes are set on the LA Olympics for sure; we have made a roadmap for it, and we have requested the government for the support that is needed for maximum exposure and training.
“In connection with our preparation, the Pakistan Boxing Federation also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Kazakhstan Boxing Federation around two months ago at the Pakistan Sports Board.
“The first stage of that MoU is that two Kazakhstan coaches have arrived on June 15 for a week, and they will be training the athletes but also the coaches. We have also invited top boxers of the country to participate in this camp.
“We are very hopeful for better results at the Commonwealth Games.”
Pakistan will be fielding Malaika Zahid in the women’s 54 kg competition.
Meanwhile, in men’s events, Qudratullah will compete in 60 kg, Sumama Rehman in 55 kg, and Afzal Khan will represent Pakistan in 65 kg.
The boxing competitions in Glasgow will begin on July 24.
-Fin-
Fatima Zahra’s profile at a glance
Undefeated national champion in featherweight from 2021 onward.
International achievements:
International medal: Islamic Solidarity Games 2025, bronze in featherweight, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Participated in the 2022 Asian Games held in Hangzhou, China.
Participated in the Olympic qualifiers round 1, Italy.
Qualified for the Youth World Championship, Spain.
Competed at the 3rd Belt & Road International Boxing Gala, China.
Participated in a training tour for the World Olympic Sports Awareness, China.
National achievements: Youth national champion held at Karachi, 2022.
Youth national champion held in Quetta, 2022.
Gold medalist in DHA 2nd Women Championship .
Gold medal in KPT National Championship 2023.
Gold medal in the 34th National Games in Quetta, 2023.
Inter Department Championship, gold medal in Abbottabad, 2024.
Gold medal in the National Championship in Karachi and declared Best female boxer in 2025
Gold medal at the National Games 2025 in Karachi.
Professional Boxing Achievements: Pakistan Pro Green featherweight belt holder from the WBC boxing event in Islamabad.