She fled war, found boxing and made Olympic history: Ramla Ali's In the Shadows

 Ramla Ali is known for making firsts — she is the first Somali woman to become a professional boxer, and the first Somali to not only compete for a world title but also represent her home country at the 2020 Olympic Games.

Millions of people around the world watched Ramla make history, giving them hope that one day they could follow in her footsteps.

"Being the first only means that you can set a trend for others to watch you, look up to you, and think that I can do it too," the professional boxer tells The New Arab.

"I hope that me being the first in those things has shown young kids, boys and girls, who have come from similar backgrounds to me, that if she can do it, I can do it too, and I hope that it's something that they can look to achieve in the future," Ramla adds. 

But her successes did not come with ease, as the boxer grew up amid fleeing war, being bullied for being overweight and navigating a culture that looks down upon women taking part in sports.

As she continues to fight matches, Ramla shares her story in her new movie In the Shadows, directed by BAFTA-winning and Oscar-nominated director Anthony Wonke, with Ramla and her husband, Richard Moore, serving as the film’s executive producers.

"It tells a migrant story, and then it also tells a love story, and there are messages of hope, showing migrants as human beings, and showing the different cultures, falling in love in a nutshell," Ramla shares. 

Starring Top Boy’s Jasmine Jobson, who plays the boxer, and Peaky Blinders’ Finn Cole, the biopic follows the boxer from fleeing Somalia after her brother's death to finding refuge in the UK and discovering her love for boxing, much to her mother’s dismay.

"I think, being a migrant, when I came to the UK, it's not as bad, I believe, as it is now. I think being a migrant, always having that culture at home, has shaped me to be the person that I am," Ramla says.

The boxer was only a baby when her brother Abdi was killed by a mortar in Mogadishu during the Somali Civil War.

While the film shows Ramla as seven, her mother says she was still breastfeeding when she came to the UK.

"I actually don't know my age," Ramla reveals. "I don't know when I was born. I was obviously born during the Civil War. I don't have a birth certificate, and so my age and date of birth are guessed."

The biopic constantly shifts from Ramla shadowboxing and training for upcoming fights to scenes of her brother being killed and life in Mogadishu amid war, as if she’s constantly thinking about Abdi while fighting and reminding viewers where she is from.

The film also parallels the joy Ramla feels when she’s boxing with the mundane life of a corporate lawyer trying to keep her secret training sessions, knowing the culture she grew up in wouldn't allow it.

Growing up with a strict mother, Ramla never smoked, drank, or went out partying, but she trained in secret. Her family eventually finds out after she becomes Britain’s first Somali boxing champion, and viewers get to see the dreaded moment they learn their daughter is a boxer.

Viewers see her mother’s disgust, but also a sort of betrayal.

"I'm so scared of my mum, so I never did anything naughty apart from boxing," Ramla says.

"I think she was just mostly annoyed by the deception, the lies, but I couldn't tell her. How can I tell my mum who took us out from Somalia, we're fleeing danger, and I'm essentially putting myself back into danger? How can I tell my mum? So, I just kept it a secret."

Amidst fighting for her life and trying to maintain the image of an "ideal Muslim Somali girl," the movie is also a love story.

The biopic also shows Ramla meeting and falling in love with Richard, played by Finn Cole, a white British man who converted for the boxer and is now her full-time trainer and manager.

The film shows her family’s disapproval of her wanting to marry a white man, believing he was not a suitable match for her.

"It was two different cultures, a clash of culture, [Richard] wasn't very welcomed at the beginning by my family, but now they love him; he's like now my mum's fourth son," Ramla says. 

Together, the couple founded 786 Films, a production company aimed at championing minority-led, female-driven and underrepresented narratives.

"For me, boxing is not going to be forever. You don't want to be 40-50, still competing. You need another thing that you can slowly go into," Ramla explains.

With Richard’s background in filmmaking, it felt like a natural progression for Ramla to take part, having co-written and co-directed their first short film, How to Hide It, starring the boxer herself and about a young Muslim woman who faces a moral dilemma after winning the lottery.

"I'm really enjoying this new chapter in my life, filmmaking, and for me, it just seems like a natural progression," Ramla shares.

The boxer also draws on her experience as part of an intercultural couple in her debut feature, Not Like Us, which finished production in July.

The film shows not only Ramla and Richard falling in love, but also Richard supporting Ramla in her endeavours when her family wanted him to end it in the name of "protecting his wife."

It portrays the couple taking matters into their own hands by working to represent Somalia in the Olympics after being rejected by Team GB, with Ramla always wondering why she was never selected to represent Britain in the international ring.

"I remember thinking that I'm not going to wait around and have my dreams in your hands; I'm going to go out and pursue myself," she tells ​​​​​The New Arab.

"It was just me and Richard representing Somalia all over the world. I think for me it's been the best decision."

As Somalia did not have its own boxing federation, Ramla had to create one after a friend suggested she represent her home country.

Despite having no national funding and working three jobs while competing against athletes training full time, the boxer says she wouldn't change it for the world, and that she became an inspiration to many.

"I got to do everything that I wanted to do. I got to go to any competition I wanted to go to. There was no politics around it," Ramla says.

"At the beginning, it was very selfish that me wanting to compete for Somalia was just about me, what can it do for me, what competitions can I do. But then receiving these comments from people just showed me that it's bigger than me and it's about inspiring the next generation, and it was great when I was doing it."

The boxer also shared that she wanted to put her country in a positive light.

"Too often, Somalia, it's all about war, it's about famine, if not, it's about corruption, it's about piracy, it's about Al-Shabaab," the boxer says.

"I wanted to paint Somalia in a positive light. I wanted to show Somalia that we're more than just that. We're actually people; we can actually do incredible things in this world."

The film shows Ramla finally achieving her dream of playing in the Olympics, along with the many achievements she reached along the way, but also remembering her brother whose death shaped the trajectory of her family’s lives.

Looking back on her film, Ramla's core message is that migrants, like her, are just regular folk.

"With the current migrant crisis, and all these anti-migrant groups, I hope this film just shows that migrants are human beings, and we're not evil people; we're just fleeing danger to pursue safety. I hope people go and watch this film with an open mind and an open heart."

In the Shadows releases in UK cinemas on 30 October

Anam Alam is a staff writer at The New Arab. She frequently writes about human rights and social issues, including women's rights and sex education

Follow her on X: @itsanamalam