Fighting their way out of poverty, Thai girls take up boxing.
Pannipa and her twin sister, Sawinee, fight to help pay for school fees, books and pocket money. Their mother left the family when they were young and has since disappeared. Their father, whom they rarely see, has remarried and has a new family in Bangkok. They live at the boxing camp and get about 300 baht, slightly more than $9, for each fight, win or lose. The prize money increases with experience and age. Areerat Yaited, 17, who trained at a different boxing camp in the Phitsanulok area, recently made about $283 for a match against a foreigner in a stadium on the resort island of Phuket, a princely sum for a teenager here.
Mrs. Rabiab, who attended Pannipa’s recent match, said that girls boxing was inconceivable when she was young and that she was apprehensive when her granddaughters started. “Before their first fight I was so afraid my heart beat faster,” Mrs. Rabiab said. “But now I’m proud of them.”
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