@ the beginning
Soumia was born and raised in The Netherlands, in a city called The Haque, the political capitol of the country.
 She was born on march 14th , 1988, in a family with three older brothers, one older sister, and one baby sister. Her parents are immigrants from a small village called Ajdir, near the province Taza in Morocco.
 Growing up in the Dutch Schilderswijk, a very tough neighbourhood in the Hague, Soumia soon learned to stand her ground. Her older brothers had hard and rough times growing up. Being little children from Moroccan immigrants, a minority in the Netherlands, and living in a neighbourhood where the crime rate was and still is very high, they had to stood up for themselves. It’s no secret in the Schilderswijk that you can easy come in contact with drugs and crime. In fact, it’s almost inevitable.
 Soumia saw a lot of violence as a child and as a teenager, but she nevertheless always found a way to enjoy herself and to stay away from the bad. She took up stunt-skating when she was eleven or twelve and hang out with other children in a park in The Haque, where most young skaters hang around the half-pipes, roll by with airspeed, spin on the pavement, or hop on the wooden benches. She also liked to played soccer on the street or on a field nearby. The skaters and soccer players were almost always boys and would treat the young girl with the ‘Pipi Langkous pigtails’ as such. When uncles and aunts spoke to her parents about her wild, boyish behaviour, her mother replied amusingly: ‘God gave me four sons, instead of three – tell me, what can I do?’
 Soumia’s mother is a sweet lady who suffered from a very bad kidney disease and who needed intensive care from time to time. Luckily, she’s got a successful kidney transplant in 2007, and after years of pain and agony, the future looks somewhat brighter again. Her mother’s illness made Soumia restless at times. She learned at a young age to take nothing for granted, and that nothing comes for free in life. You have to fight.

Goals & ambitions
One of her big brothers taught her to be strong and to reach for her goals in life, no matter what happens, no matter what situation she is in. Soumia sometimes speak of this period: ‘My brother is a very handsome boy. I looked up to him a great deal. He is bright, intelligent and funny. He makes me laugh a lot. I like his smile. He doesn’t smile as much anymore though. It’s difficult to grow up normal and to strive for the things you want to achieve if you come from the environment where we live in – no excuse. That’s just how it is.’
 Although her brothers had a lot of difficulties to keep themselves straight, Soumia and her sisters went to school every day. Soumia soon found out that she could learn quite easily, although she found it hard to concentrate and to sit still. She followed some other students and also her older sister who all practiced thaiboxing.
 About her choice to take up a violent martial art: ‘I don’t know why exactly I became interested in thaiboxing. A lot of young people in my neighbourhood practice it, some boys I go to school with, girls too, even my sister. I don’t know, it  just seemed the natural thing to do. Also, I can have a real bad temper sometimes! Ha ha ha! Really, thaiboxing relaxes me. And I want to keep busy all the time. Keep working. Keep reaching. You just have to move on – you know.’  

She went with her sister and one of her fellow-students to a successful thaiboxing gym called GYM INTERNATIONAL in Vlaardingen, a city nearby The Hague ( 20 minutes drive ). She was only fourteen years old then. The assistant-trainer, Alex Boogers, immediately saw the restlessness in her eyes, and the eagerness and hunger to fight and to win. When she sparred with the older and much taller boys, she just would not give up.
 Although her sister liked the gym very much she choose to go to a thaiboxing gym closer to home and let Soumia decide for her own. Soumia stayed with one of her fellow-students at GYM INTERNATIONAL and travelled three times a week to train at the gym.

Developing skills
Her two trainers, Vincent Vielvoye and Alex Boogers, found out during the lessons that she was indeed a very talented and special young lady.
 Soumia soon earned the respect in the gym from the boys and men who train every day rigorously. The called her ‘Zoom’ or ‘Zoom-Zoom’, because of her swift and fast movements. Like a speeding car, or a annoying bee that flies around your head constantly. Without hesitation. 
 She won the first match quite easily on points. Her trainers noticed that Soumia could listen very well to her corner men during a fight, a special quality which is very hard to learn. She also had an well developed insight on fighting, the way she moves, her timing, the way she uses her distance – it looked like she always had been in the game of thaiboxing. It was exciting and extraordinary to watch.
 Soumia went on to win the A.S.A Amateur Dutch championship for ladies in the weight-class 54-55, 5 kg at the age of 15.
 She also followed her other ambitions such as singing and acting. She performed on Block party’s in The Hague, some kind of local talent shows, and she also auditioned for a part in the musical ‘The Lion King’ when she was only sixteen years old. The judges were very impressed by her performance, but told her that they were not looking for ‘a young bright Shakira with wild curly hair and a great singing voice’. She was also a little bit too short for the part, but they assured her that she would definitely find her way in the entertainment industry, because of her appearance, and her great voice. The judges could never expect that she also was the amateur champion thaiboxing of Holland.

High School horror
In the same year she stood in the lobby of her school during a lunch break, next to her fellow-students and teachers, when one of her fellow-students went up to her teacher and shot him in the head. It was the first high school-shooting drama ever in The Netherlands and it made headline news. Soumia stood in the lobby and saw the terrible assault on her teacher.
 About that period: ‘He ( her teacher ) was a very nice man, and he did a lot to help us out. He was very passionate about his work and about his students. I could not help thinking about his wife and children when he died. I don’t cry easily, but I was so sad. It was so pointless. I know the boy who shot him. His father is in prison for murder, and now he has done the same thing. I don’t know why. He is actually a victim too, but he could have made other choices – better ones. You choose your life, to a certain degree, no matter what happens. He has done a very bad thing. Perhaps he thought that there was no other option, perhaps he just didn’t know better. I don’t know. I cannot judge about other people’s lives. But if there is no one to teach you, you have to educate yourself . Of course, it’s hard – believe me, I know.’
 All students who witnessed the shooting got psychiatric counselling, but Soumia told the doctors that she didn’t need it. She worked out in the gym almost every day, fought her matches and won every time.