Sima Azimi frowns as she pirouettes in the snow, suspended for a moment against the sky on a hill overlooking Kabul and above the conservatism of contemporary Afghanistan. So please, get out, show your capabilities, and don&China auto rubber Manufacturers39;t let anyone choose for yourself."It is not only on the training mats that the young woman knows how to fight."But it is only up to women to do something for themselves.But her demonstration this week at the top of the hill of Sharak Haji Nabi, although a traditional rendezvous of Hazara walkers, attracted too much attention in a country where many still believe women should be veiled and confined to the home. "If someone came to harass me I could certainly defend myself.When she returned one year ago she immediately opened her club in a stronghold of the ethnic Hazara community, of which she is a member, in Kabul.For their master Sima, the biggest obstacle was readjusting to her country of origin."

"I am the first lady in my family to do sport," says Latifa Safayi."Iran is a developed country but here in Afghanistan there are some very conservative thoughts to fight," she says."But thanks to my training I became more powerful," she adds.Now she trains three times a week, the aches which overcame her body in the beginning fading to a sport she describes as "demanding and complete".As a result, they are typically found in the young teams of cyclists, climbers, and runners in the country who are often anxious to "open the way for others". Women are freer in their movements and more independent; men less oppressive to them. raising the Afghan flag abroad".Mixing boxing and blade control, sabres and daggers, wushu can be a choreographed exhibition of acrobatics or a # full-contact sport.There is still a need for boldness among young Afghans who wish to indulge in sport -- even more so with a martial art like wushu, popularised by stars such as Jackie Chan and Jet Li, which Azimi has taught for a year in the war-torn capital.."I want to change the image of Afghanistan, too well known for war and drugs," she vows. There the slender young woman was introduced to wushu.On the warm-up mat, faces sometimes twist under stress and pain as Azimi, a black belt, presses and pushes them.'Demanding and complete' Hazaras, a long persecuted Shiite minority, are among the most open people in Afghanistan."My family never opposed my class here, my father was just concerned for me, he found me too small and he feared I could get in trouble," said Soraya Rezayi, 19, with the silhouette of a twig like her fellow pupils.

Mixing boxing and blade control, sabres and daggers, wushu can be a choreographed exhibition of acrobatics or a full-contact sport, a challenge to gravity that requires bodies of steel and rubber.In black or pink satin pyjamas, their hair covered, they practise the modern sport derived from traditional Chinese arts mastered by, among others, the flying monks of Shaolin in northern China.She does not plan to return soon, she confesses."Unfortunately, we have only Hazara students here and I don't like this, I am not comfortable with this solo ethnicity in my club," she tells AFP, adding she wants to welcome girls from other communities.Azimi's family took refuge in Iran when she was two years old, with Afghanistan still under the Taliban regime.Earlier this week the 20-year-old woman left her club in western Kabul, sheltered from prying eyes by a discreet but heavy metal door, to train her young pupils in the open air. Afghan members of a Wushu martial arts group led by trainer Sima Azimi (centre) pose for a photograph at the Shahrak Haji Nabi hilltop