Pioneering Bangladeshi Brit, Nazia Khatun has won the Sportswoman of The Year Award at The Baton Awards 2018. Khatun has changed the lives of thousands of women since beginning her career as a boxer. Collecting her award at The Houses of Parliament, Khatun said she was ‘honoured’ to be recognised as a BAME trailblazer.
“Not so long ago I was the intern, the green hopeful in the newsroom but now advancing years and experience have placed me firmly in the position of Mentor. It’s a role I actually relish as it is imperative that the baton is passed on, and that is precisely what the awards achieved,” said Sky's Gillian Joseph, The Baton Awards co-host.
The Baton Awards 2018 was designed not only to inspire BAME women, by celebrating pioneers and innovators, but to actively activate change at a grassroots level and create a surge in the myriad of industries that aren’t being accessed by the female BAME community.
With the rise of #MeToo, 2018 is being hailed ‘The Year of The Woman’ and this is the circle of progress that The Baton Awards 2018 is based firmly upon.
After suffering from bulimia and depression in 2013, Khatun reinvented herself as a body transformation coach. She is an amateur boxer who grew up in a Bangladeshi household with five younger siblings, and it was the late Muhammad Ali’s daughter, Laila, who inspired her to start boxing and facilitated her love of sport when she visited her college. She has also racked up the attention of many female who have experienced domestic violence.
Speaking about that she said, “When I first started I got the attention of domestic violence victims. I was fixing these broken females. In our community, we don’t talk about things like sexual abuse, depression, mental health and domestic violence. These topics are associated with shame and honour; honour is the most important thing for the Asian community, often things get brushed under the carpet. It can create long-term depression, there’s too much pressure on achievement and being successful.”
