How Bruce Lee inspired karateka Zainab Saleh to teach women in Nigeria to protect themselves
The Nigerian started the Zainab Saleh Karate Open in 2014 to grow the sport for women to defend themselves against violence in Nigeria, with over 200 participants registered for the 2023 edition in Lagos.
Karate
Zainab Saleh could not hide her joy and love for Bruce Lee as she answered the question, “What is your favorite Bruce Lee Movie of all time?”
She paused. A tinge of excitement in her voice surfaced, along with indecisiveness, especially for being put on the spot like that. How could she choose?
The Nigerian loved every Bruce Lee movie that had ever hit the theatres. The martial arts legend's films were her main inspiration for pursuing the sport of karate, which snowballed to making her a conduit through which other girls in West Africa are trained to make headway into the sport.
“Karate has always been a childhood sport of mine. I remember growing up watching Bruce Lee movies and those were one of the major influences that got me into sport,” Zainab tells Olympics.com.
Zainab Saleh: The “Bruce Lee Impact”
Zainab Saleh was one of many people whose first introducion to martial arts was through cinema.
After watching movies featuring Bruce Lee, she got her father to enroll her in a karate school when they lived in North America. “I remember telling my dad that I wanted to practice karate and he found a school for me in Mexico. That for me was the beginning of my karate journey.”
In the karate school, she remembers the diversity among the students, and how open it was for everyone to practice irrespective of gender, religion, or race.
She grew in the sport and began competing in championships - both local and internationally - until she moved back to Nigeria.
One of the girls participating at the Zainab Saleh-Open.
The Borno State native joined the Karate Federation of Nigeria and was later appointed the technical director of karate for Lagos State.
“During one of our team meetings for one karate event, the idea struck me to start a women-only karate program,” she said.
Already in the news, there was a slew of headlines highlighting gender-based violence against women in Nigeria. The United Nations (UN) estimates that one in three women in Nigeria under the age of 15, have experienced physical and/or sexual violence at least once, with the numbers continuing to rise in adulthood.
“You always hear and see news of women getting sexually assaulted and I can’t begin to imagine what they all go through. I wanted to start a movement through karate so that these women and girls can defend themselves in some way against these violent attacks.”
Zainab chose an unconventional way and took a leap of faith to teach women karate. “We really need to teach our women to become more conscious of their environment and become more conscient of what to do when they find themselves in hostile situations,” Zainab added.
Karate, which means 'unarmed' in Japanse, is seen by some as a violent sport, and it surprised Zainab that there wasn’t any pushback from parents when she began her movement. “Parents saw it and asked, how can i enroll my daughter,” she said. Aside from tackling gender based violence, Zainab had a passion to grow the sport of karate amongst young girls and women from the age of 5 upwards.
This birthed the Zainab Saleh Open.
The Zainab Saleh Open
Born in 2014, the event was the only female-only Karate Championship in West Africa, and thanks to funding from family and close friends it remains the premier women's event in the region, celebrating it's ninth edition in November 2023 (Thursday 2nd to Sunday 5th), with the Covid-19 pandemic preventing it from taking place in 2020.
The championship follows the two karate formats that were included in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, held in 2021.
The first being kumite - where athletes are paired against each other to use their skills in fighting. The second format is Kata - where contestants display their skills individually to score points from the judges.
More than 200 karatekas are registered to compete in the 2023 edition.
Karatekas at the Zainab Saleh-Open award ceremony.
“I started the Zainab Saleh Open to improve the technical quality of women and girls karatekers,” Saleh told us.
A decade on, the event has produced national team athletes and international athletes as well.
Zainab believes heavily in the concept of creating opportunites in your own community, but it's not just for Nigerians. Benin Republic have been the most consistent nation to compete in the event, with athletes from Ghana, Cameroon, and Togo also invited in previous years, but not always able to participate. "Sometimes it is due to the lack of funding for the sport so some nations are unable to make it.”
Despite challenges finding sponsors, Zainab has managed to build a sturdy community of women in karate over the past 10 years. The ninth edition of the Zainab Saleh Open is being held in Lagos in the Dr. Molade Okoya Thomas Hall at the Teslim Balogun Stadium from November 2nd to 5th.
Saleh, who currently doubles as a judge and a referee for international karate championships, is also offering an intensive training course for referees in the sport at the event.
She's hopeful the competition will have an impact on any who attend: “I feel this will give women the opportunity to understand and see Karate for what it is,” Zainab said, and after a long thought, she settled on “Enter the Dragon” as her favorite Bruce Lee movie of all time.