Phnom Penh (Cambodia). 15/12/2008. Sok Sreytouch in the men's changing room before her fight with Lelö Page. She lost in the first round. (Photo: John Vink / Magnum)17-12-2008
By Stéphanie Gée
Ka-set in English
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Sreytouch's tough-looking and ageless face only leaves a tiny bit of room for fleeting expressions. The look in her eyes seems to go beyond boundaries, lost somewhere in space. Her brief answers were filled with the somewhat monotonous tone of her deep voice. Life and the boxing ring have for sure turned her into a tough one. The young 20 year-old is no girly chick: she is one of the very few women in Cambodia who happen to have taken up boxing. The sport is highly revered in the small Kingdom of Cambodia, where people bitterly blame their Thai neighbour for having made theirs this secular art of fighting.
A family thing
In the Sok family, boxing gloves might as well replace flip-flops: almost every member has their own pair, regardless of gender. All in all, it is three brothers and two sisters, including Sreytouch, who decided to seriously take up the Khmer sport known for its elbow strikes and knee blows. Their father, who used to spend most of his time on boxing rings in the 1960s but has to walk using prosthetic legs today, was the one who introduced Kun Khmer to his children.
“During a match in 1971, he got badly hit by a kick in the side from his opponent, a Thai man. He cursed him, for sure: my father very quickly became ill and only came through thanks to the amputation of his legs... All that because of black magic...”, Sreytouch explained with bitterness. However, this handicap does not prevent Sreytouch's father from looking after his offspring: he officially coaches all of his children in their home village in the province of Kampong Speu.
However, the father figure has not been of much importance in Sreytouch's final choice to wholly enter the world of boxing when she was 12-13 years-old. She had always been fascinated by the Khmer sport which she used to watch on the little television screen, faithfully broadcasting the matches played in Cambodia. If she ever had one mentor and hero, it would be her big brother Sok Sopheak, a boxer too, who died prematurely, four or five years ago – she could not remember very well: “He got too many blows... and had a stroke”, Sreytouch said tersely. She does not seem to have got over her difficult grief yet.
With already two victims in the family, having Sreytouch admit that boxing is a violent sport is yet a complete waste of effort. The question was welcomed with a powerful, sharp and assertive “no”. One of these little words that are quite final. Pushed back in the ring ropes, we yet insisted: has she ever been injured? She nodded, pointing at a pretty scar on her forehead, the remnant of a previous fight: “several stitches.” She does not see her scar as a trophy, but rather as a detail that has added itself to her face, nothing more.
Economic motivations above all
In the Sok family, ask for the mother: when it comes to stepping up on the ring and fighting, she gives her children her full blessing. Pragmatism is the word in the poor family. Above all, boxing allows some improvement in everyday life, since every match sees both winner and loser receive a few banknotes, the quantity of which may obviously vary. This financial bonus was Sreytouch's main motivation in her choice to put the daring gloves on and become a national champion in her category.
Gender discrimination in the sport milieu
The young Cambodian woman fought on Monday night at the Olympic Stadium against a French woman, Lelö Page, who reached victory in less than ten minutes, having managed to dominate the situation in the first round. It was neither enthusiasm nor ardour that Sreytouch lacked but truly training, and probably a few supporters too. On the masculine side, no difference was felt between the Cambodian and French boxers. The thing is, when the young woman wants to train, she has to take hours on top of her job to do so. From 7am till 4pm, it is bits of material and the mad rhythm of a sewing machine that Sreytouch has to fight against. The job is exhausting, but she does not complain. Feeling sorry for oneself does not seem to be her style at all.
Boxing, being the usual privilege of men in Cambodia, leaves little room for the preparation of a woman who, by the way, had to use the same changing facilities as her male counterparts.
Philippe Sébire, a Kun Khmer coach and a fervent defender of the traditional art of fighting in the region of Paris, France, was here with the delegation of French boxers. “You can tell she is not well-supervised”, he said, “and that she does not have a real coach or training programme to follow.” “There is no gender equality here. In France, a woman will train with men and take up hand to hand fights with them... The same thing would be unthinkable here. Cambodia is not yet ready for female boxing”, he estimated, thinking in the meantime about inviting Sreytouch to come to France to take care of her career and encourage her to attend courses.
Sreytouch would love to see more girls getting involved in boxing. But, she said, echoing the words of the French coach, it is the mindsets that have to be changed first. “It is not hard to convince girls themselves – I did meet a few who would like to follow in my footsteps – but getting their parents' approval is a different kettle of fish!” At least, until then, her fellow factory workers are her best supporters.
A family thing
In the Sok family, boxing gloves might as well replace flip-flops: almost every member has their own pair, regardless of gender. All in all, it is three brothers and two sisters, including Sreytouch, who decided to seriously take up the Khmer sport known for its elbow strikes and knee blows. Their father, who used to spend most of his time on boxing rings in the 1960s but has to walk using prosthetic legs today, was the one who introduced Kun Khmer to his children.
“During a match in 1971, he got badly hit by a kick in the side from his opponent, a Thai man. He cursed him, for sure: my father very quickly became ill and only came through thanks to the amputation of his legs... All that because of black magic...”, Sreytouch explained with bitterness. However, this handicap does not prevent Sreytouch's father from looking after his offspring: he officially coaches all of his children in their home village in the province of Kampong Speu.
However, the father figure has not been of much importance in Sreytouch's final choice to wholly enter the world of boxing when she was 12-13 years-old. She had always been fascinated by the Khmer sport which she used to watch on the little television screen, faithfully broadcasting the matches played in Cambodia. If she ever had one mentor and hero, it would be her big brother Sok Sopheak, a boxer too, who died prematurely, four or five years ago – she could not remember very well: “He got too many blows... and had a stroke”, Sreytouch said tersely. She does not seem to have got over her difficult grief yet.
With already two victims in the family, having Sreytouch admit that boxing is a violent sport is yet a complete waste of effort. The question was welcomed with a powerful, sharp and assertive “no”. One of these little words that are quite final. Pushed back in the ring ropes, we yet insisted: has she ever been injured? She nodded, pointing at a pretty scar on her forehead, the remnant of a previous fight: “several stitches.” She does not see her scar as a trophy, but rather as a detail that has added itself to her face, nothing more.
Economic motivations above all
In the Sok family, ask for the mother: when it comes to stepping up on the ring and fighting, she gives her children her full blessing. Pragmatism is the word in the poor family. Above all, boxing allows some improvement in everyday life, since every match sees both winner and loser receive a few banknotes, the quantity of which may obviously vary. This financial bonus was Sreytouch's main motivation in her choice to put the daring gloves on and become a national champion in her category.
Gender discrimination in the sport milieu
The young Cambodian woman fought on Monday night at the Olympic Stadium against a French woman, Lelö Page, who reached victory in less than ten minutes, having managed to dominate the situation in the first round. It was neither enthusiasm nor ardour that Sreytouch lacked but truly training, and probably a few supporters too. On the masculine side, no difference was felt between the Cambodian and French boxers. The thing is, when the young woman wants to train, she has to take hours on top of her job to do so. From 7am till 4pm, it is bits of material and the mad rhythm of a sewing machine that Sreytouch has to fight against. The job is exhausting, but she does not complain. Feeling sorry for oneself does not seem to be her style at all.
Boxing, being the usual privilege of men in Cambodia, leaves little room for the preparation of a woman who, by the way, had to use the same changing facilities as her male counterparts.
Philippe Sébire, a Kun Khmer coach and a fervent defender of the traditional art of fighting in the region of Paris, France, was here with the delegation of French boxers. “You can tell she is not well-supervised”, he said, “and that she does not have a real coach or training programme to follow.” “There is no gender equality here. In France, a woman will train with men and take up hand to hand fights with them... The same thing would be unthinkable here. Cambodia is not yet ready for female boxing”, he estimated, thinking in the meantime about inviting Sreytouch to come to France to take care of her career and encourage her to attend courses.
Sreytouch would love to see more girls getting involved in boxing. But, she said, echoing the words of the French coach, it is the mindsets that have to be changed first. “It is not hard to convince girls themselves – I did meet a few who would like to follow in my footsteps – but getting their parents' approval is a different kettle of fish!” At least, until then, her fellow factory workers are her best supporters.
1 comment:
i can see the man next to her in the picture above seems threatened by the female kickboxer. well, you know, in khmer culture, it is very rare for a female to be as courage or as daring as a man, thus, most men felt threaten by this. however, by showing more and more what female can do as well as men, it will help to ease and perhaps change men's view on women. but, perhaps it will take time. it is not right to say that it is impossible as nothing is impossible if we set our mind to do it. it's all in the mind, my dear. the mind or intent of the mind is very powerful, believe it or not! god bless.
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