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Tina Rahimi is among four women in the Australian Commonwealth Games boxing team and the first Muslim woman to fight for this country at the Games.
Boxing fans see Tina Rahimi in her hijab and assume she's an easybeat.
It's proving a dangerous assumption that the 26-year-old is delighted to dispel.
Rahimi will be the first Australian Muslim woman to box at the Commonwealth Games when she competes in the 57kg division at Birmingham.
She is one of four women in the boxing team of 11 that was announced on Tuesday for the July 28-August 8 Games.
Rahimi earned her selection last month by winning the national title, despite suffering a shoulder ligament injury at the start of the tournament.
"At first I was really uncomfortable, people looking at me, that I'm different," Rahimi said of her headwear and long-sleeved top.
"They'd look at me like 'who's this girl? She's going to get bashed', because I just look so different - I don't look like a boxer.
"They misjudge me. Once they see me fight and see that I can actually fight, they show their respect. It feels amazing."
At the nationals, one of Rahimi's supporters overheard another onlooker say she would be in big trouble against the tournament favourite.
"Then I gave her a hell of a time and I remember him coming up to me ... and saying 'wow, you did so well'," she said.
Rahimi will also leave for Turkey next week for the world championships - her first international competition, and only four years after taking up boxing.
She has prepared through the Ramadan holy month and its fasting requirements, which ends next week.
The Sydney boxer missed out on a national training camp in Sheffield, England because of Ramadan, but sees the commitment to her faith only as a positive.
"I'm actually loving this month. It gives me good vibes, just getting closer to God, praying," she said.
"This is what is giving me more of my confidence as well. I've suffered for this."
Rahimi's fellow Sydney fighter Kaye Scott, 37, will become only the second Australian boxer to compete at three Commonwealth Games.
Scott won bronze in the 70kg division at the 2018 Gold Coast Games and will compete in the 69kg category at Birmingham, while Victorian Caitlin Parker is back after her silver in the 75kg class four years ago.
Parker also fought at the Tokyo Olympics.
At 19, South Australian Callum Peters is the youngest member of the boxing team and he will compete in the 75kg division.
Boxing team -- Women: Kristy Harris (50kg division, aged 29, Victoria), Caitlin Parker (75kg, 26, Victoria), Tina Rahimi (57kg, 26, NSW), Kaye Scott (69kg, 37, NSW).
Men: Taha Ahmad (69kg, 21, NSW), Edgard Coumi (91kg, 26, SA), Billy McAllister (81kg, 22, NSW), Callum Peters (75kg, 19, SA), Billy Polkinghorn (64kg, 25, WA), Charlie Senior (56kg, 20, WA), Alex Winwood (52kg, 24, Qld).
