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Afghan BRUCE LEE Interview
Manage episode 365833188 series 3145176
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The Afghan Bruce Lee Abbas Alizada talks with Andrew Staton direct from the UK Martial Arts Show 2023
He reveals;
How did he find out he looked like Bruce Lee?
What was the first Bruce Lee film he saw?
How he was discovered in Afghanistan?
Was he already training in martial arts?
He reveals he trains with Sifu Samuel Kwok in WING CHUN, who is a direct student of Ip Chun who was taught by his father Ip Man who famously taught Bruce Lee
Abbas Alizada saw his first Bruce Lee movie as an eight-year-old in Afghanistan. However watching Fist of Fury, The Big Boss and Alizada’s favourite, Enter the Dragon, was very dangerous.
The Taliban a hardline Islamic regime that now rule Afghanistan have banned all television, music and cinema. “If caught I would have been punished,” said Alizada, now 29, “People were beaten and had their hands and feet chopped off.”
But Alizada’s connection to Lee did not stop at a love for martial arts and his movies. In 2014, Alizada shot to social media fame after friends posted photos of him on Facebook. His striking resemblance to Lee did not go unnoticed. “Afghanistan’s Bruce Lee,” he said. “That’s what people called me ... I was getting recognised in the street.”
His looks now made him a target, as did his ethnicity. Alizada is a member of the Hazara group, one of Afghanistan’s largest ethnic minority groups that has long faced violence and discrimination. “I was in danger – my training partner was killed by the Taliban.” He also feared for his wife who holds a brown belt in karate. “For women and girls life was difficult.”
Under the Taliban, women are banned from many jobs, education and denied access to public parks and gyms.
A British charity, along with Alizada’s London-based lawyer Mahtab Aziz, helped Alizada and his family flee the war-torn country. It was a long and complicated process that included six months in Pakistan and time in Iran.
One day he hopes to return to Afghanistan. “I love Kabul and I want my children to see their birth place,” he said. “I want to return when peace has returned … I believe the Taliban will be removed one day.”
Interviewer Andrew Staton Filmed in 4K and directed by Matt Routledge
With thanks to Bob Sykes, Paul Barnett and the UK Martial Arts Show.
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