Australian boxer Tina Rahimi on praying, punching and fighting in the face of Islamophobia

Australian boxer Tina Rahimi used to have a lot of nerves when she walked out to a fight.

It wasn’t because she was anxious about copping a glove to the face or her own ability in throwing a punch the other way. It was because of a piece of clothing: her hijab.

“People always have something to say about the way I dress,” Rahimi tells ABC Sport.

“Just go onto my Facebook, scroll through the comments. There’s always just random people commenting ‘You don’t belong here’, ‘Why is she dressed like that?’, ‘Why is there a towel on her head?’

“It’s something that I’ve just gotten used to over the years and learnt to block out that noise, but it’s like, ‘Why do you care how I choose to dress?’ I’m not forcing anything on anyone. ‘Do you know me?'”

Rahimi says it got to the point where she does not care anymore. When she stepped out for her opening bout at the Paris Olympics, it was the most confident she had ever been.

“It was more about performing for my fight; that’s where the nerves 1784440853 really come from,” she says.

Rahimi made history at the Paris 2024 Games as Australia’s first female Muslim boxer to participate in the Olympics. She did so while wearing a full-coverage uniform and hijab, an Islamic head covering that the host nation had banned its athletes from wearing, which created a lot of public attention.

She was also a strong voice against France’s hijab ban, writing at the time on social media: “Women have the right to choose how they want to dress. With or without hijab. 

“I choose to wear the hijab as a part of my religion, and I am proud to do so. You shouldn’t have to choose between your beliefs/religion or your sport.”

Ahead of the Games, Rahimi did numerous podcast guest spots and had profiles written in media publications. Then at the tournament, she had microphones pointed at her face while moving around the athletes’ village.

Regarding things Down Under, she hoped her profile would help show that Australia is a very multicultural country.

Even so, two years on, she still admits: “Oh yeah, 100 per cent, I definitely feel different [in Australia].”

In the country’s current political and cultural climate regarding the prevalence of Islamophobia, the noise is always there in the background for Rahimi – and sometimes the foreground.

This May, the Australian Human Rights Commission documented a massive and sustained surge in Islamophobia, particularly in online abuse directed at visibly Muslim individuals.

The Islamophobia Register of Australia — an organisation set up to monitor incidents — recorded 366 cases of online abuse between January 2023 and November 2024, according to its latest report. 

It came as Muslim community leaders raised the alarm about the rise in Islamophobia in the country.

“I feel like there’s more eyes on me, and it’s not always in a good way. I mean, people are just waiting for you to stuff up or to say something for them to hold against you,” she says.

“You’ve just got to block out that noise … It’s just a part of being an athlete, so people are always just going to have something to say. 

She says the representation that comes with her profile is obviously “really, really good”. 

But admits she finds it baffling having to be on the receiving end of comments about her not being “Australian enough” when she has represented the country at the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games and World Championships.

“I feel more Australian than anyone could,” she says.

“So sometimes when you hear those comments, you’re just like, ‘Oh, what does a typical Australian look like?’ 

Rahimi’s religion is an important aspect of her life and part of everything she does.

She chose to put the hijab on at 18 when she was feeling closer to God and going to the mosque more.

She prays five times a day, starting before dawn for Fajr and ending with Isha before going to sleep.

“My religion has taught me that discipline, so I feel like it goes hand in hand with boxing,” she says.

“I’ve shared rooms with a lot of female athletes (and) when they hear me or see me getting up at that time, they’re like, ‘wow’, they understand where I’ve got that discipline from.”

Rahimi will make her professional debut later this month on July 25 against fellow Aussie boxer Sacha Dryden.

The fight is billed on the same card as Tim Tszyu vs Errol Spence’s blockbuster night. It will be her first without headgear.

It has been a long time coming. Rahimi has not fought since she secured a bronze medal for Australia at the World Boxing Cup in March last year in Brazil.

A few months after that win, she broke her hand and required surgery, sidelining her for four months.

When she was ready to box again, she worked hard on her fitness and started to reach out to promoters. She got offers here and there, but wanted it to be large event.

“I just kept training and training, and they said ‘We’ll get you on a show’, and it just wasn’t working out. I just didn’t want to fight on any show. I wanted it to be big,” she says.

“I wanted it to be something that’s televised. And then we got the call from No Limit Boxing (a boxing promotions company with a broadcast partnership with Foxtel and Kayo), and we’re on.”

It just so happens that her return to the ring will be in her hometown of Sydney. That adds pressure, but she welcomes it.

The fight also falls nearly two years to the week since her Olympics appearance, which ended in heartbreak.

Rahimi lost her Olympic round-of-16 bout in the Women’s Featherweight (57kg) to the eventual silver medallist, Poland’s Julia Szeremeta.

Immediately following this, Rahimi felt she lost her identity.

“I feel like when you’re an athlete, and you dedicate your time to something, and you have that goal, and then that goal is gone, and it’s finished, you have an identity crisis,” she says.

“Because your identity is that athlete, it’s that boxer.”

She says the only way to win in the sport was to go in believing you would. So for the Olympics, she genuinely thought she would finish at the top of the podium.

“I’m thinking ‘My life is going to turn around completely because I’m going to be a gold medallist,'” she says

“That’s how you think … And then when things don’t go your way, or you lose, you just have an identity crisis. Like, [it’s] four years until the next Olympics, so what now?”

In part, it was why she set her sights on a professional debut. She needed something to chase.

“I like the process, I like the hustle, the grind … I love the way it makes me feel,” she says.

“[It] makes me feel like I have a purpose, having that goal to work towards. 

When she looks back on the last five years, Rahimi does so with pride.

She knows she can be a little bit hard on herself, but it comes from self-belief.

But that reflection can come later; right now, she’s focused on beating Dryden and putting on a show.