Outlook

Abbas Alizada was nine when he first saw a Bruce Lee film. He fell in love with kung-fu, copying his hero’s moves and his look before an online post shot him to overnight fame.Abbas was born in Kabul in 1993, the youngest of nine siblings. His family are Hazara, an ethnic minority who have historically faced violence and persecution in Afghanistan, and were partcularly targeted when the Taliban first took power in 1996. During this time, music and movies were banned, and Abbas’ family kept a low profile until the US-led invasion toppled the regime in the early 2000s.With restrictions gone, Abbas began to see movies for the first time, on a television his uncle would rent for the family. He was nine when he first saw Bruce Lee in kung fu classic Enter The Dragon. He was transfixed by the actor’s kung fu skills, and decided that day that he wanted to be a martial artist. As a teenager, he was enrolled in a local martial arts academy, but when his parents could no longer afford the fees, he continued training by