Indonesia not ready for women's boxing: Official

JAKARTA (JP): Due to "cultural and technical reasons", the Indonesian Sports Council (KONI) has decided not to hold women's boxing events despite an urgent request from the world amateur boxing body AIBA.

"KONI chairman Pak Wismoyo (Arismunandar) said, in a reply letter to AIBA, that women's boxing events would receive strong opposition from several women's organizations here," vice secretary-general of the Indonesian Amateur Boxing Association (Pertina) Didit Soedijoto, told reporters on Tuesday.

"I've been told that State Minister of the Empowerment of Women Khofifah Indar Parawansa also strongly rejected women's boxing events. We have no intention to quarrel with her."

AIBA earlier requested that Indonesia stage the women's events to meet the minimum number of participants for both the Asian and World Championships.

The regulation says AIBA requires support from 15 countries for the Asian level and 20 countries for the world level to stage the championships. It also requires a minimum of eight participants in each weight division.

"We still need to introduce the women's boxing event to our society before we can stage them. Actually, there are already several women practicing boxing but only for health reasons and to boost their self-confidence," Didit said.

"KONI has also requested that AIBA give them more information on countries with successful women's boxing events as a comparison for our preparation."

Didit emphasized that the cultural reason was not the only barrier to staging the women's boxing fights as Pertina also found obstacles in regulations and technical matters.

"The targets in women's boxing events are exactly the same as the men's events: the upper part of the body which includes the face, chest, ribs and stomach. Can you imagine what will happen if a female boxer hits her opponent's breasts?"

"Therefore, women's boxers need special protective gears like breast protectors and special head caps that we haven't even seen before. We also need to prepare separate changing rooms and other facilities."

Currently, there are at least five martial arts in Indonesia that stage women's fighting events: judo, karate, pencak silat, taekwondo and wushu. Indonesia's female fighters have made considerable achievements in several events.

When asked to compare with those martial arts, Didit said boxing was completely different as a boxer aims to defeat his or her opponent in full-body contact.

"The ultimate goal in boxing is to knock out the opponent and it's really difficult to compare it with martial arts. Besides, boxing is a close-range fighting, enabling both sides to receive more injuries than in martial arts," he said. (nvn)