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Article Excerpt: "Lead with your bellybutton, not with this," Soolmaz Aboali says, holding a clenched fist in front of her as a group of 40 teenages at J.E.B. Stuart High School in Falls Church, VA., mimics her. Abooali is teaching traditional karate to the students at this high school named after a Civil War Confederate cavalry commander. But she's not just teaching the 40 children here how to punch and kick the air and count in Japanese; she's handing them key tools for peace-building and diplomacy.
And Iranina-born Abooali isn't just a nine-time U.S. national champion in traditional karate and a fourth and dan black belt; she's also a Ph.D. candidate and graduate research assistant at the George Mason University's School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (S-CAR). She fled Iran with her parents shortly after the Islamic Revolution. Her father had been kicked out of university for his political activism and her mother, she says, is an educated and outspoken woman who was forever falling afoul of the mullahs. The family went first to Pakistan, then to Bangladesh and finally to Canada as refugees, before settling in the United States.
To read the entire article on page 24-25, pleas see The Washington Diplomat magazine
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