Dad becomes Batman to take stand against son’s bullies
Posted July 11, 2021 9:07 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
MONTREAL (CityNews) — Fighting bullying and intimidation in schools is a long and ongoing battle that kids continue to suffer from, but one Montreal dad is standing up for his son by dressing up as Batman.
“My son was getting bullied in daycare and I wanted to find a way that was not confrontational to solve the problem,” said Mahmood Al-Durrah.
“I guess I chose Batman because he’s human, he doesn’t have any superpowers.”
Al-Durrah is a father of two, a retired body builder, former Mr. Olympia, a YouTuber and he runs his own coaching company. He has an engineering degree and came to Canada from Egypt more than a decade ago.
Credit: INSTAGRAM/Batman of Canada
In 2014, he saw his son being bullied at daycare and wanted to make a real difference. His son Zayn loves Spiderman, so Spiderman is who Al-Durrah became.
“I didn’t want to go and talk to the parents, I didn’t want to go talk to the teachers, I just wanted to put a positive spin on it, to make it stop,” he said.
“I remember all the kids at the window looking, ‘oh my God, is that Spiderman, like what’s going on?’ Even him, he was really confused.”
Al-Durrah enjoyed taking on a superhero role for his son and wanted to spread that same joy to other children, so he posted on the West Island Community Group’s Facebook page, inviting parents to let him know if they wanted him to put on his gear and show up for their kids. He got a ton of positive feedback from parents who loved the idea. And he’s now known as the Batman of Canada on Instagram.
“I’m really proud of my dad because he’s doing very hard work, work to do everything,” said Al-Durrah’s nine-year-old daughter Talia.
Al-Durrah is planning to go back to Egypt for the first time in 11 years. He’ll be giving a motivational seminar, but he’s also planning on bringing his superhero costumes with him and visit children at a local hospital.
“The intention is to try to be a better person and influence others to be better,” said Al-Durrah. “I think social media has dampened that quite heavily and has led people to focus on a lot of superficial things, materialistic things, hopefully that will give people a better perspective on how to be fulfilled and happy.”
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