Ramla Ali Chronicles Her Journey from Refugee Camps to the Olympics in "Not Without a Fight"

 

Ramla Ali’s story is a uniquely inspirational one, the tale of a remarkable young woman who has evolved from war refugee, impoverished immigrant, and bullied youngster to professional boxer, fashion model, and social activist.

And yet, as she wonderfully illustrates throughout the 327 pages that comprise Not Without a Fight, there are deeper dimensions to Ramla than any, or even all, of these easily-applied labels can begin to convey. In keeping with Ali’s defiance of convenient identifiers, her book itself refuses to fall comfortably within any one category.

It is an autobiography, yes. One which will undoubtedly be of immense interest to sports enthusiasts, and boxing fans specifically. But hers is a human interest story of the profoundest sort that transcends the perceived barriers of age, gender, religion, nationality, or sexual orientation. Subtitled 10 Steps To Becoming Your Own Champion, Ramla’s book is also a self-help manual born out of an empowering struggle for survival. Ali concludes each of the ten chapters, or rounds as she likes to refer to them, with a brief synopsis of relatable takeaways and vital life lessons learned from the experiences chronicled in the preceding pages.

Before settling into this format, Ramla begins her book by jumping ahead into a preface that details a humiliating episode from her younger days as a stranger in a strange land, having finally settled with her family in East London after they had fled from war-ravaged Mogadishu. On a walk home one day, she suddenly found herself surrounded by three menacing boys on bicycles, one of whom ripped the hijab off her head, threw it to the ground, and stomped on it, symbolically desecrating the Islamic faith represented by Ramla’s traditional head covering, before riding off and laughing all the while.

It is somewhat safe to assume that contemporary Western notions regarding life in Somalia are heavily influenced by popular culture. Take, for instance, the depictions of seafaring pirates, a corrupt and oppressive military dictatorship, and more than thirty years of still ongoing civil unrest and bloody skirmishes in movies like Black Hawk Down and Captain Phillips. These portrayals are true and mostly accurate, of course, but they don’t allow for an appreciation of the cultural pride and natural beauty of Ramla’s homeland, attributes she only came to discover and fully recognize decades after leaving the Horn of Africa far behind.

Boxing would play an instrumental role in kindling Ali’s desire to shed her insecurities and combat prejudicial standards which would one day put Ramla in the unforeseen position of taking up the fight to represent her birthplace in a revolutionary way completely without precedent.  

Ali was just a toddler when her eldest brother Abdulkadir, disobeying orders not to play outside due to constant air strikes, was gravely wounded by shrapnel from a mortar dropped onto their property. Because the roads were so badly cratered from the relentless carpet bombing, Ramla’s father and uncle had to push her brother to the hospital in a wheelbarrow. Despite their heroic efforts, Abdulkadir couldn’t be saved. He was only twelve, or so her family believed. Official recordkeeping was either nonexistent or at the very least an extremely low priority in Somalia at the time, and many of the documents that might have been registered were destroyed along with the buildings in which they were contained. Even to this day, Ramla’s true age is simply a best guess. This is likewise the case with her other siblings except for the youngest, Yahya, who was born after they vacated Mogadishu as a direct result of Abdulkadir’s death.

Abandoning all but the most necessary of their personal possessions, the Ali family’s exodus began on an undersized, overcrowded boat which was tossed around on stormy seas for the weeklong duration of the journey toward Kenya, one which not all aboard would survive. Subsisting on sugar cubes, a lice-infested Ramla herself became very ill, and her mother feared that another of her beloved children would perish. Fortunately, this was not to be.

Her family was shuffled between various refugee camps, and had the few belongings and little money left to their name stolen at one of them. By no small miracle, not to mention the necessity of falsified passports, the Ali family made safe passage from Kenya to England, although it would take several years and changes of address for them to be finally granted permanent housing in the London district of Whitechapel.

Social isolation gave way to loneliness and depression, and an adolescent Ramla sought the escapism of literature, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice being her favorite book. Overindulging in sweets and crisps offered its own type of temporary comfort, but naturally led to her gaining weight which only gave Ramla’s adversaries yet another reason to ridicule and ostracize her.          

Ramla’s mother insisted that a gym membership just might be what her daughter needed to improve her physical condition which would, in turn, nurture her emotional well-being. This plan succeeded all too well, as Ramla would incidentally fall in love with boxing, a pastime her mother, who adhered to a very strict interpretation of Islamic teachings, considered “haram,” or forbidden. Not only was boxing off limits to Somali women, the sport had been banned in the African nation altogether in 1976.

Galvanized by attending the 2012 Olympic quarter-final match between Natasha Jonas and Katie Taylor at London’s Excel Arena, Ali pursued her newfound passion nevertheless. Concealing this admittedly farfetched dream from her family was certainly the most formidable obstacle Ramla had to overcome in her determined drive toward becoming a boxer, but it was by no means the only one. She found female inclusion at the neighborhood gyms and athletic clubs initially challenging, was sexually accosted by one of her first coaches, had her nose broken by a careless male sparring partner, and battled an often aggressive self-doubt which was made even worse when having to suffer through setbacks both in and out of the ring. Mentally and physically, she persevered thanks to her intelligence, fierce resolve, and fighting spirit, as well as the camaraderie of her friends and peers, and the unconditional love and moral support of her husband and coach Richard.

Ramla came out on top of Sweden’s 2013 Golden Girl Box Cup tournament with a victory over hometown favorite Sara Svensson, the first time a Muslim woman had won an English amateur boxing title, but was crushed at not being extended an invitation to become an official member of Team GB. Fortunately for her, Ali had learned that when doors are closed in your face, one must use ingenuity and persistence to create your own opportunities in life.

The undertaking that being left off the Team GB roster resulted in was her decision to fight for her homeland, which was anything but an arbitrary or easy choice to make. But it was the only option left if she was going to make her dream a reality. Because boxing was outlawed in Somalia, this meant that Ramla and Richard needed to establish a Somali boxing federation from scratch, get him registered as an officially recognized coach eligible for international competition, and enter her into as many tournaments as humanly possible.

Without giving too much of the book away, it goes without saying that their venture was a successful one. Nike hopped on board to sponsor Ramla, and it was participating in a photo shoot for one of their ad campaigns featuring influential young athletes that helped pave the way toward a future in the fashion industry which she continues to enjoy in conjunction with boxing as a force for change.  

More than just a pugilist or a pretty face, Ramla did the previously unthinkable last summer by bearing the flag of Somalia, and wearing a powder blue track suit to match, as she marched through Japan National Stadium as a representative of her beleaguered but proud birthplace in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Disappointing as it surely was to have been eliminated in the opening round by Maria Claudia Nechita of Romania, the fight result did nothing to diminish the awe-inspiring historical significance of the moment.    

Now a flawless 5-0 as a paid prizefighter, Ramla has her sights set on another landmark achievement—becoming the first boxer fighting out of Somalia to win a world championship in the professional ranks. She will be the first to tell you that of all her meaningful triumphs, the most joyous one was when she received a phone call from her mother expressing genuine acceptance and heartfelt congratulations to her daughter who, out of love and respect, had kept her boxing exploits a guarded secret for so many years.  

In 2018, Ramla founded The Sisters Club, which began as a not-for-profit safe space for Muslim women to train with or without wearing their hijabs, learning self-defense free of charge and free of the fear of being discriminated against.

To show how dramatically her life has come full circle, Ali, a former war refugee whose displaced family survived thanks in part to the assistance of NGOs, became an ambassador to UNICEF. She traveled to Jordan in 2019 to visit Syrian refugees at the Za’atari camp, taking the time to speak with, and offer self-defense instructions to the appreciative and enthusiastic young girls.

Difficult as the struggles to come to terms with these hurtful labels are, being cast by yourself or others as an outsider or misfit doesn’t have to be the defining stigma that we all too often make it into. In Not Without a Fight, Ramla Ali describes how we can turn these barriers into building blocks which can strengthen our self-confidence to where we feel not only able to, but obligated to stand up for ourselves and our beliefs, ultimately connecting with a community of like-minded and supportive individuals working harmoniously toward a shared goal.    

“We have to be open to new things, even if they don’t work out. Don’t be afraid of putting yourself out there,” Ramla writes in Round Seven of her book. “The very act of trying something out tells yourself and the world that you are brave, you are ambitious and you are a force to be reckoned with.”