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I can't beat him. But that don't bother me. The only thing I want to do is to go the distance, that's all. Because if that bell rings and I'm still standing, then I'm gonna know for the first time in my life, see, that I wasn't just another bum from the neighborhood.

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bbc news, jan 22

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For the next hour, Razia Shabnam goes through her paces, as early morning walkers gape at her.

"She's the woman boxer. Be careful of her!" quips one passer-by.

Braving stiff resistance from relatives and neighbours in the desperately poor Muslim ghettos of Calcutta where women have traditionally lived a cloistered life, Razia Shabnam, 23, made it to the big ring.

Now she is India's first Muslim woman boxer-turned-coach and international referee.

More importantly, she is like the Pied Piper to poor Muslim girls who are making their journey to the boxing ring and making a statement.

There are over 150 women boxers in India today, but the majority of those hailing from Calcutta are Muslim girls who have come out of the shadows.

"Women taking up boxing here is like a jihad [struggle] against established community conventions," says Rahat Hussain, Razam's social worker father.

Ashit Banerjee, a boxing enthusiast who runs a club in the city and brings out the only boxing magazine in India, remembers that in the early days the girls would leave home in burqas and slip into shorts and boxing gear once they had reached the ring.

"They come to the ring, because boxing gives them a strong sense of identity. They are no longer faceless girls spending all their lives at home," says Banerjee.

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