Melika Balali and Habiba Bayati are judoka from Iran and Afghanistan, one living in Scotland and the other in Sweden. Through judo and community both have found peace despite their extraordinarily challenging backgrounds. This peace does not imply their lives are now without adversity, far from it, but now they have the ultimate freedom, that of choice.
Melika has much to say about the idea of peace, “I am an ambassador for peace as part of the IJF Refugee Team.” An activist for women’s rights, Melika is clear about her past. “In Iran I didn’t feel alive and I certainly wasn’t free. In Scotland, in the IRT and with judo itself, I found hope and with hope I found peace.
In Scotland I am a free woman. I promote the rights of woman and because of this I can’t have contact with my family. This is very difficult but anyone who is living under oppression or in war, they must be strong; I always try to be strong.”
Melika knows she hasn’t arrived at her improved situation alone but with the help of many people, some in Scotland, some in the IJF and many others and she respects the support she has been offered. “If you have any chance to bring light to someone’s heart, do it and especially do it if it is through sport and judo in particularly. Many people did this for me and I now live to do the same.
I can’t call what I feel a homesickness because I don’t want to go back but for my first year away from Iran, I was so depressed. I needed sport, a contact sport like judo, to bring me out of my dark space and allow me to have positive contact with people again.
First I was a wrestler but I wasn’t allowed to continue with that in Iran. Judo now gives me the chance to express myself. It saved me from depression and anxiety. So,” she laughs, “Maybe the weather isn’t so great in Scotland but still I found real light there, a light that allows me to see a future.”
Hope, choice and contact have brought Melika incredible peace. Within the IRT she is not alone in that. Habiba also says, “Peace, mental peace is very important for Afghan women. I left without truly knowing what that felt like.
Judo is more than the letters that make up the word. When I started judo, I felt my life had finally begun; I really didn’t have anything before that. I was hopeless but found my future and freedoms on the tatami. On the mats we are all the same. Woman or man, refugee or native citizen, we are the same here. Judo gives us this and it brings a very special kind of peace and calm.
Peace and freedom go together and with this freedom, everyone can be themselves. Peace for me means equality for Afghans and for everyone everywhere in the world. In Sweden I see this equality. To be honest, when I arrived, I faced a real culture shock realising that on the whole men saw me as an equal, as just another human. It gave me real excitement, a new kind of awake, to see this.”
Both women continue to train and compete. They were recently in Malaga at the Spanish European Cup, with IRT coach Vahid Sarlak, all applauding loudly as a member of their team, Adnan Khankak, won a silver medal. Medals are very hard to come by when you’ve had to start and restart all over again, when you’ve struggled to understand what peace can feel like, and so Adnan’s medal is yet another symbol of peace, freedom, humanity and equality.
World Judo Day is approaching and on 28th October this year, we embrace the theme of peace. We urge you to explore this idea within your clubs and promote peace for all, at every level, on World Judo Day and beyond.
