Wafaa Amer: the Italo-Egyptian climber in search of freedom

La Sportiva presents Hura (free) the short movie dedicated to the young climber of Egyptian origins. The difficulties, struggles and revenge of a Muslim girl who grew up far from home in search of herself. Wafaa was raised was by her grandparents together with her sisters, as her parents had already moved to Italy. At the age of 9, Wafaa joins her parents in the Bel Paese where she encounters and grows up in a totally different world from that of her childhood. She learns a new language, she approaches a different culture, more open to a woman of her age, and she knows climbing for the first time.

In fact, at 15, thanks to the generosity of the father of a friend of hers who pays her for her first course, she begins to practice this new sport, which in a short time becomes for her, a form of pure freedom. Hura, as they call her in Egypt.

For Wafaa, however, practicing sports is not as simple as for other peers: due to her origins and her religion, her father does not approve of certain influences of Western culture in her life and Wafaa is forced to go to the gym in secret to train.

At the age of 18, the scenario is to return to Egypt to continue her life there, as tradition dictates. For Wafaa it is now unthinkable to abandon the life she has built on her own up to that moment, to leave the gym, the holds, the companions who belay for her, the friends, and for this reason she decides to go and stay with friends in Finale Ligure, where she finds a new family, support and understanding. In the Finale area she manages to climb challenging pitches such as "Radical Chic" (first 8a Finalese in Montecucco) and the famous historic pitch "Hyaena", of well-known local Andrea Gallo, signing the second female ascent. In these years Wafaa consolidates her new roots in Liguria by moving to the social farm “Il Bandito e la Principessa”. Today, at the age of twenty-four, Wafaa continues her life in Finale Ligure, dividing herself between passion and work, freely, choosing who she wants to be every day. On top of that, Wafaa Amer joined the La Sportiva athletes’ team in 2019.