Hussain Sadiqi

Hussain Sadiqi (Persian: حسین صادقی‎‎) is an Afghan Australian actor and martial artist. He won an award for the best fight scene for the Australian made action movie Among Dead Men at International Film Festival in Pasadena, California.

An athlete in Afghanistan, Sadiqi left as the Taliban arrived and landed in Australia as a refuge in 1999 at Port Hedland Detention Centre.

Martial Arts expert Hussain Sadiqi was born in the central highlands of Afghanistan Oruzgan Province. He began his Martial Arts training when he was only 9 years old. He attained the top ranking Martial Arts position in Afghanistan at a young age and become the National Champion at the age of 16. At 18 he became the captain of Afghanistan National Team. In 1999 unfortunately he had to flee Afghanistan because of several years of war and becoming a Taliban target due to his high profile.

His new journey began in 1999 when he left Afghanistan in search of a new homeland. His family paid 5000USD to a smuggler to get Hussain out of Afghanistan to safety. His journey from central Afghanistan to Pakistan, then moving to Indonesia and finally boarding a fishing boat along with 147 other asylums saw him take three months to reach Australia.

Soon after arriving in Australia he was sent to a Detention Center for six months until he was released on a temporary protection visa. After being released he was selected to compete in Taekwondo for the Afghan team at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games and carry his country flag at the Opening Ceremony. A couple of days before the Games started the International Olympic Committee banned the Afghan team because the Taliban which controlled Afghanistan at the time would not let women compete.

Hussain gained many fans with his Martial arts based documentary “The Art of Fighting” directed by Gavaine Broune. He carried into this role childhood memories of a desolate mountainous region of central Afghanistan and the battered photograph of Bruce Lee shown to him by his older brother.

When Hussain was growing up in Afghanistan he harbored two dreams - one to take part in the Olympic Games, and the other he nursed was to become a star of a Martial Arts films like his childhood hero Bruce Lee.

In 2008 he won an award for the best fight scene for in an action movie for “Among the Dead Men” at the Action on Film International Film Festival in Pasadena, California. The award was for the best action in a Feature Film and was selected from a field of 300 entries from around the world.

Hussain said at the Festival “I feel blessed as somebody from Afghanistan because as soon as you hear about Afghanistan, people think war, poverty, and terrorism. But from such a country this is where I did very hard training to reach this level. Then beating all these people from around the world especially with many Chinese Masters, I feel great”.

As a Volunteer:'

Hussain have worked as a volunteer assisting people and new arrivals to Australia for the past ten years. He is also a community leader and spokesperson for the Hazara community residing in Western Australia. Hussain has also been working as a sports officer to help refugee kids from all around the world. He is a model role to engage them with the Australian Culture through sports such as Australian Football.

As a refugee advocate he has visited a number of detention centers in Australia and Europe countries. In 2011 he was invited to Geneva as a guest speaker to talk about human rights and refugees to international law students. After he visiting to refugee camps in Greece, where he noticed the condition of refugees was not good, he wrote a report calling on the UNHCR and Red Cross to take action.

Awards and Achievements:

At the age of 27 he achieved 2 gold medals in the field of Shaolin Kung Fu. In 2008 Sadiqi won the award for the Best Fight Scene for action movie “Among Dead Men” at AOF International film festival in California beating 300 film worldwide.

In 2012 Hussain came back to win the Kung Fu World Championship at the age of 33.