How a refugee Olympian Nigara Shaheen found a new life in Canada

As a young student in Pakistan, Ms Shaheen faced harassment by older men on her way to the refugee school she attended, and bullying by her peers.

In an essay in the Toronto Life magazine, external, she recalled: “One day, an older man assaulted me and my sister. He screamed at us and pushed me to the ground. I wanted to punch and beat him, but I didn’t know how.”

Her mother said she needed to learn how to defend herself.

The school she attended didn’t offer martial arts or other after-school activities for students – even if it had, it would often close, sometimes for weeks at a time, she told the BBC in an interview from Paris.

But through her extended family, she heard about an instructor who was coaching karate at a nearby school. He couldn’t train her there, but he could come to her.

Soon after, Ms Shaheen was on the balcony at her aunt’s home, getting coached.

Her mother told her the balcony was all the family had to offer “but you can use it as much as you want”, she recalled.

Not long after, Ms Shaheen was fighting in local karate tournaments. Her coach, noticing her talent and passion, suggested she try competing in judo.

“I asked him ‘what’s judo? And how would I know what to do?’ He told me: ‘Just grab your opponent and throw her, that’s it,’” she said.

Ms Shaheen was able to take down her first opponent in a few seconds. She had a knack for the sport.

While winning felt good, it was the philosophy of judo that got her hooked.

“(My first coach) said you will not learn how to get up unless you fall. As a kid, that really motivated me,” she said.

It also reminded her of watching the WWE with her father, a wrestling fan, as a child.

The sport gave her the confidence to find herself – and joy in her life – despite the hardships she faced as a refugee.

Ms Shaheen’s coaches began to notice her talent. At one point she trained with Pakistan’s national judo team but could not compete alongside them without a Pakistani passport.

In 2014, Ms Shaheen returned to Afghanistan, where she studied political science and public administration at the American University in Kabul.

She also trained with the Afghani national team, were she was welcomed by her male colleagues.

“Inside the gym, we were a family, and they treated me like I was their sister,” she wrote in Toronto Life.

She continued to train and compete, and began to receive a lot of attention as a female athlete in Afghanistan – some of it unwanted.

“I faced immense cyber bullying,” she told the BBC. The harassment later turned physical.

“There were so many times when cars would chase us,” she said. Once, someone threw a soft drink can in her mother’s direction as she was dropping her off at practice.