Doaa Shayea on strength, beauty and acceptance
Para-powerlifter Doaa Shayea was the first English athlete to wear a hijab at the Commonwealth Games. She reflects on her life, faith and on finding inner and outer strength.
Doaa Shayea has spent much of her life feeling different. Growing up as a Muslim girl and wheelchair user in Devon, she saw how society viewed difference, beauty and strength. But sport changed the way she saw herself.
After discovering wheelchair racing as a child, Doaa went on to become an elite powerlifter, representing Great Britain and becoming the first English athlete to wear a hijab at the Commonwealth Games. Along the way, she's challenged assumptions about what disabled women, Muslim women and a powerlifters can look like.
She speaks to Amber Haque about how sport changed her life and how makeup also became a form of self-expression. She also opens up about finding faith on her own terms and building her inner and outer strength.
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Produced in Birmingham by Samsaara Productions for BBC Asian Network.
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