Anita Karim grew up in the rugged northern region of Pakistan, where she learned to fight by sparring with her three older brothers. They never held back, and those tough experiences shaped her into a skilled combatant. Today, she is Pakistan’s leading female fighter in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), a sport that combines Thai kickboxing, Japanese judo, and wrestling.
“In my village, people support women fighters,” Karim told AFP. “But when I started MMA, no one knew about this sport. They said it was only for men and that women couldn’t do it.”
At 28, Karim has proven them wrong. Eight years ago, she earned the right to step into the ring. She quickly became Pakistan’s first internationally competing female fighter, showcasing her skills in Asia’s premier MMA promotion, ONE Championship.
“Now, the sexist comments and criticism have stopped,” she said during an interview at her gym in Islamabad. There, she trains in an unheated octagonal cage, the same space where fighters face off.
In deeply conservative Pakistan, women participating in sports is rare. Many families forbid it. However, Karim’s home region, Gilgit-Baltistan, has a more relaxed attitude toward female modesty. It has become a hub for women’s sports.
For example, in October, two sisters from the region, Maliha and Maneesha Ali, won gold and bronze at a taekwondo competition in Indonesia.
Karim’s brother, Uloomi, is her coach. He once felt her punches during their childhood spars. “When she showed commitment and dedication, we knew she would succeed,” Uloomi said. “We had no issues with her training with men.”
Despite her fierce reputation, Karim is surprisingly shy outside the ring. She leads a growing group of Pakistani female fighters, including five from Gilgit-Baltistan, according to the regional government.
“She’s shy, but when she enters the cage, it’s a different story,” Uloomi said.
Karim’s signature move is the armlock, a painful technique that forces opponents to surrender before bones break or joints dislocate. In 2022, she earned the nickname “the arm collector” after a match where two opponents wore slings on their injured arms.
“They could have tapped out, but they didn’t, so I went through with it,” she explained.
Karim’s journey began with taekwondo and jiu-jitsu in her hometown. She discovered MMA during high school in Islamabad, shocking her community.
“Many people close to me criticized me, but that’s part of the game. Now they understand,” she said.
Today, her hometown celebrates her achievements. “She has made Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan proud on the international stage,” said Shah Muhammad, the region’s sports chief.
Karim faced challenges early in her career. During her professional debut in 2018, the referee refused to let her fight unless she raised her leggings above her knees. After losing that match, she moved to Thailand to train at an MMA academy.
Now, she earns a living through competition prizes, small government grants, and coaching at her Islamabad gym. When she returns from competitions, fans greet her at the airport.
She has inspired a growing community of female fighters in Pakistan, where only one in five women has a job, according to the UN.
“Anita is a role model for us,” said Bushra Ahmed, a young fighter training alongside Karim.
Karim also wants to empower Pakistani women with self-defense skills. Over 80% of women in Pakistan have faced public harassment, according to the UN.
Recently, Karim took matters into her own hands. “I hit a man who was harassing me in a market in Islamabad,” she said. “He left with his face covered in blood.”
Anita Karim is more than a fighter. She is a symbol of resilience, breaking barriers and inspiring a new generation of women in Pakistan.
