They told her women shouldn't box, now she's Ghana's first female world champion

ACCRA, Ghana — When Abigail Kwartekaa Quartey decided as a teenager to become a professional boxer — an unusual choice for a young woman in a working-class neighborhood of Ghana's capital of Accra — her family begged her to stop training.

Boxing is the pride of Jamestown, which is based around the fishing industry, and also known for being home to many boxing stars. But, like most sports in Ghana, boxing has often been seen as a men-only sport, and women are discouraged from taking part.

But Quartey persisted.

And last year, at age 27, she became Ghana's first female world boxing champion and the first woman to travel the world as a member of the West African nation's national team.

"My aunts and siblings didn't like it when I started boxing. They would come here to beg my coach not to let me become a boxer," she said at the Jamestown neighborhood's Black Panthers Gym, where Quartey has been training since her teenage years.

But, last November, when Quartey defeated British boxer Sangeeta Birdi in Jamestown's main boxing arena, winning the WIBF World Super Bantamweight title, crowds of friends and supporters from the neighborhood celebrated wildly, seemingly forgetting about the prejudice against female boxers.

Ghanaian media pronounced her win "historic", but Quartey is quick to point out that she is by no means the first female boxer in Ghana.

"There were women boxing before I ventured into the sport," she said. However, they weren't allowed to travel outside the country, she added.

Quartey's long road to this spectacular victory highlights the many challenges that female athletes in African countries face in their careers.

Quartey grew up in Jamestown and, as a teenager, sold rice with her aunt to help the family make ends meet. The only people who supported her boxing dream were her brother, a fellow boxer, and her coach.