Converting to Islam in 2009 at the age of 27, Safari married the man she was designing a martial arts website for the following year. Later on, the pair decided to set up a business together.
Today, the Hijabi Muslim who has a black belt in kickboxing runs 10 more training locations throughout Milton Keynes, Birmingham, and London, making a name for herself as a Muslim woman doing martial arts.
“It was baffling to Khadijah as she had grown up as a ‘British majority’ and was suddenly being seen as an ‘ethnic minority’. She had no idea that women from different cultures were so disconnected from even with the thought of doing sport, let alone actually participating in it,” the spokesman said.
“She led successful advocacy campaigns and communications, so the right conversations were being had, not just to speak to individuals but to generations of misguided cultural beliefs. If you can change the mindset of the older generation, then you can lay a pathway for the younger ones to walk proudly with their sporting achievements.”
Self-defense classes for Muslim women made headlines after Rana Abdelhamid, a young American Muslim, started an initiative for self-empowering vulnerable young Muslim women.
In Canada, Alberta Muslim Public Affairs Council (AMPAC) organized in 2016 a safety workshop for Muslim women.