Boxing legend Ali takes fight for education to Kabul
Ali, in his role as a United Nations peace ambassador, visited the Karte-Sei girls' school in Kabul as part of a three-day trip to Afghanistan aimed at highlighting efforts to reconstruct the country after its 23 years of conflict.
Though visibly frail and hampered by the degenerative effects of Parkinson's disease, the 60-year-old former world champion entertained crowds of enthralled girls, signing autographs and joining lessons.
"I'm going to make all the kids in America jealous with all these pretty girls," he joked while posing for
photographs in a tented classroom. Ali, who was visiting Afghanistan as a guest of the UN's World Food
Programme (WFP) and Children's Fund (UNICEF), hopes to draw attention to the massive shortfall in aid still facing the country despite international assistance.
According to UNICEF figures, education alone requires an extra $24.7 million to meet the needs of pupils, many of whom have only just returned to school following last year's fall of the hardline Taliban regime. "Muhammad Ali was chosen by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as a messenger of peace so he felt an
obligation to come and help the children here, especially the young women, who now have an opportunity to seek education and better their lives," Ali's spokesman Ali Hassas told AFP. After touring Karte-Sei, Ali paid a brief visit to a bakery set up by WFP in Kabul to employ and offer subsidised bread to the city's widows. Later Ali stunned a group of 40 amateur Afghan athletes when he visited a boxing club, appearing to shrug off his ailments and regain his former pugilistic prowess. Faced with a punchbag, he clenched his fists and began reaching out with a volley of powerful punches.
Then, after watching a brief bout between local fighters, he entered the ring himself, playfully feinting a few jabs with awestruck Afghan boxers.
