Boxing gives women escape route from Rio's drug gangs
Independent, The (London), Apr 23, 2004 by Louise Rimmer in Rio de Janiero

HAIR SCRAPED back and bubble gum removed, the girls limbered up. After three minutes of skipping and five on the punchbag, they ducked through the ropes and entered the ring. Friendship was forgotten as fists flew.

In the Rio de Janeiro slums, the whiff of cheap perfume wafts through boxing clubs, mingling with the aroma of sweat and testosterone. One club, called Fight for Peace, was set up by a former Edinburgh University boxing champion, Luke Dowdney, to offer youths opportunities outside of drug trafficking. "Boxing channels youthful aggression and turns it into a positive energy," he said. "It teaches discipline and rules, which helps create a culture of peace."

It is a culture desperately needed in this most violent of cities. As night falls, the stutter of gunshots fill the tropical air, as the police retreat and battle resumes. Once it was the preserve of angry young men. Now, it appears that girls are joining gangs. And many more women are forced to participate in the drugs trade indirectly, either by hiding their boyfriends' drugs and weaponry, or supplying drugs to them in prison.

Mr Dowdney's club has been running since 2000 and, last year, he agreed to admit girls. "I was always a real traditionalist and saw boxing as a male sport," he admits. "But I grew to realise that, although it is primarily boys involved in the killing here in Rio, the girls have a secondary role in it too."