Professional wrestling has been considered an art form that combines strength and showmanship and was often considered a man’s sport. But this popular form of entertainment across the globe has now welcomed women wrestlers into the ring with open arms.
Although we have seen women wrestlers dressed in spandex or lycra singlets fighting their opponents of the same gender, here is a hijab-clad female wrestler from Malaysia who is breaking barriers and pinning down men in the game.
Pro wrestler popular as Nor ‘Phoenix’ Diana who is also the first-ever female Malaysia Pro Wrestling (MyPW) Wrestlecon Champion is set to fight men in the ring.
The 19-year old petite girl clad in a hijab might look like your neighbourhood girl but sporting round-rimmed glasses and geared in her sports attire, she is the country’s first hijabi pro wrestler, who fights both men and women in the ring.
Nor Diana first started training as a wrestler in late 2015, following her teenage dream of becoming a fighter and made her debut a few months later. Outside, the ring she is a softspoken girl who spends her day working at the hospital.
She may have emerged as a fierce Pheonix but her path to rise above and do the extraordinary wasn’t easy.
Initially, she competed wearing a phoenix mask, to reduce the chances of people recognising her. But after losing a match last year she removed it and has been competing without one ever since.
“Before, I only wrestled with my mask because it was part of my identity, and I was afraid of societal judgment against me as a hijabi, but I decided to unmask last year in December. It felt like a new identity,” she said.
Wrestling as a sport is gaining momentum across the world. But this 19-year-old dynamite sure sets an example, letting people all over the world know that it is imperative to do what you love in spite of your religious beliefs.