The woman giving Dubai a fighting chance: Creating a Muay Thai community where women build their strength

For a few minutes, the gym isn't a gym.

I'm watching two sturdy women, one commanding the other to deliver the highest kicks and punches. It's an art; it looks graceful, I mutter to the person nearest to me. There is no ungainliness or uncoordinated kick: the arms and legs hit at stern angles. It's almost hypnotic to watch, the girl doesn't even stop for a second.

She hits out with kick after kick, never stopping, and only when she does, do I see that she is out of breath.

After this round of several minutes, the two are beaming, and their faces are visibly flushed. A tad triumphant, too.

One of the women is Lara Fawzy, the owner of this quaint Muay Thai gym in Dubai. As we walk through rows of punching bags, she begins to share her own story, and how she fought her way to Muay Thai.

'The person I've become…'

Fawzy was born in London, UK, and moved to Dubai almost 15 years ago. She arrived to work in the corporate world and was offered a position here. However, the buzzing sports scene pulled her into the ring.

"The one that really pulled me in, was Muay Thai, and I've continued it for almost 10 years. I've really enjoyed it, and the challenges, and the person it's made me become. So that's the reason I created this gym, based on my journey," she says.

On how long she has been training, she explains that she started in 2016. "Approximately 10 years."

And then she had to take a break. But that doesn't stop her from fighting her way back.

Breaking her arm and returning to the ring

She chuckles as she says that she calls herself Titania. "I have a plate in my arm, and nine pins."

The injury occurred in 2016, at a sports event in the UAE. "I underwent a major surgery. My arm was pretty badly broken," she says. But her fighting spirit doesn't only exist in the ring, and so she was determined to overcome the challenge. "I watched a lot of fights. I trained very, very hard, and worked with a top-level professional fighter, and then when I did my first amateur fight, I won. So, I was happy about that."

A victory on all fronts.

Fighting for a place in a man's world

So what led her to start a woman-only gym in Dubai? As she explains, when she began, there were few women coaches in 2016. "I can count them on one hand. If there were women's classes, the coach was always a man, or it's in a mixed gym, so there was no privacy," she says.

As a result, Fawzy would keep posting on social media and received several enquiries from women asking her to train at home, though she didn't think home was the safest place for such a sport. "I realised a lot of women wanted to try it, but they felt intimidated, and it is, and was, a very macho sport. This has originated from males fighting, really, and dominating the sport, so there needed to be a space that was born from real curiosity and pain from females."

The challenges women face in Martial Arts

It has been a tough battle, a battle to break the fixed stereotypes about women in the martial arts space, and a battle to fight in a male-dominated space. It's also, quite gruelling. "I've had my nose broken as well, so my arm was broken, but that was part of the game."

Moreover, while she appreciates the training culture built for men, Fawzy realised that women need to train differently, according to their bodies. "It's tough training, and very good training, but you always feel you're an add-on, or that the culture's not always geared towards you as a female and how you need to train."

Nevertheless, she acknowledges that training alongside men also toughened her up. "But I realise it's very macho, it's quite intimidating for people who are not really used to martial arts, or the ordinary female."

Making Muay Thai Safe without making it soft

She has gone from competing as an athlete to building a community for women, and her own journey has shaped the way she coaches. "I have always trained Thai style. I haven't really mixed my style with other forms of martial arts. I've done a bit of boxing, a lot of competitive boxing, but I've always tried to keep the style of Thai," Fawzy says.

This commitment took her abroad for years at a time. "I've trained in Thailand for almost seven years consecutively, and I fought my pro fight in 2023 in Thailand as well," she says. "So I've learned a lot of Thai technique, and I have watched a lot of fights, seminars, and attended seminars with some of the high-level athletes in the sport, and world champions."

She has tried to bring that education home without losing what made it work. As Fawzy notes, the way she learned was old school and tough, and she has tried to keep the training that tough, while still working to ensure it stays safe.

That philosophy shows up even in the details of the gym itself. "For example, the mats that we're standing on are really dense, in case anybody has a fall, and so safety is a priority," she says. "But that doesn't mean that the training is soft, or that we don't push people 100% here."

The women who train with her say that balance is part of what keeps them coming back. Dania SaifEldawla, 16, and a student, says that she has never done such sports before, at least till now. Inspired by Lara, she adds that Muay Thai has helped her realise that she can really do what she sets her mind to. " I really like it because Muay Thai makes me challenge myself, and it's such a detox for yourself as well, and it's self-defence," she says.

Similarly, Mohaddeseh Moradi, Coach, recalls that after arriving for a competition in Dubai, she decided to join Lara in her gym as a coach, and hasn't looked back since.

Breaking the 'man’s sport' perception

The biggest misconception about Muay Thai: That it’s a man’s sport. As Fawzy notes, some women see it as macho and worry about becoming bulky, even though, she argues, the sport is more about becoming stronger. She also points to its potential benefits for bone density.

She traces that hesitation back to perception rather than reality. “Until they try it, they don't know, or they don't get the experience to feel how empowering it is. They just see the perception, and some people can feel it's very aggressive.”

How Dubai's Muay Thai scene has changed

Now that she's been in Dubai for so long, how does she think the landscape has changed? Are people more open to women in traditionally male-led spaces?

"The landscape has changed dramatically in the last 10 years," Fawzy says. "So now there are many more females competing in the sport. When I was training, it was hard to get females to compete, mainly because of my weight division, but also because there weren't many females. But now there are so many more females competing."

She credits the sport's governing body with part of that shift. "The UAE Muay Thai Federation is also encouraging inclusivity and more females into the sport. There are more females in the gym, so I feel like the scene has evolved dramatically over the last 10 years," she says.

Even so, she's careful not to overstate how far things have come. "I'm not sure what all of the reasons are for this, but definitely there is a bigger pool now. There are more women competing, so I feel there has been some change," she says. "But we're still miles away from where we could be, and I think in the next 10 years, it will still shift dramatically."

It's a gap she built her gym to help close. "That's part of the objective with Muay Gym, is to be part of that change in the region, because I still feel there's just a huge gap, and we're nowhere near where we could be in terms of quality in the sport," she says.

What Muay Thai means to her

Fawzy pauses to consider the question.

She answers: It means that you have a challenge. You take it head-on. You're strong and you don't give up. "Even if you fail, you come back, you're consistent, and I bring this into the gym space as well as the business.”

For her, the sport demands as much inward reflection as outward strength. “You use determination, but you're also self-aware, and you learn about yourself and you need a great deal of humility. You need respect for people. So I think it makes you better character, which is a really good thing,” she says.

She pushes back, too, on the way outsiders read the sport. “Where people perceive it as aggression or violence, I see it as self-development, so I love it from that sense,” she says. “And it's a mental, physical, emotional challenge, which helps you really develop as a character.”

And there's a practical dimension she's quick to point out. “You learn how to defend yourself, which is a nice thing to have as well. I think all women should have some skills in self-defence. It's very important,” she adds.

When the ring becomes a mirror

Has it saved her? "Yes," Fawzy says without hesitation. When she first arrived in Dubai, everyone was busy and hustling. The good thing about Dubai, she says, is that the city encourages you to chase your dreams — and that's part of why she built this gym. "I really believe in Dubai. They inspire people, they encourage you, they want you to bring innovation."

But the city’s pace, she says, made it just as important to stay anchored. After her accident, while settling into a new country, Muay Thai helped her stay grounded, develop and learn more about herself in the ring.

The ring, she found, revealed habits she hadn't noticed elsewhere. "I learned, for example, I have a tendency to procrastinate. I learned that in the ring because I just stopped at one point, and those are habits you have in your life," she says. "But it's helped me to change, to become more self-aware. I think self-awareness is very important."

Training, she adds, is as much a mirror as a workout. "When you train, you learn: are you coachable? What are your weaknesses? How does your mind work?" she says. "I didn't have very good coordination when I started, but now it's improved a lot from the sport."

Looking back on it all, she circles back to the same theme of self-reliance that defines her gym. "I think it helped me to develop. It helped me to become stronger. I didn't feel like I needed to be part of a huge community to train as well, because it helps to become a bit tougher," she says. "So creating this, I have a business coach, but I didn't feel like I really needed validation from the external community."