London (CNN) -- Film-maker and artist Tina Gharavi grew up idolizing Muhammad Ali, the trailblazing American boxing great who was a hero to her Iranian father and millions of others around the world. "My dad had incredible love for him," she told CNN at the opening of her latest exhibition, "The Last of the Dictionary Men," currently on display in London's Mosaic Rooms gallery. "It was the first time I saw a very strong black person, who was so unapologetic and beautiful." So when she moved to South Shields -- a coastal town with a maritime heritage in northeast England -- and heard that one of the 20th century's most celebrated athletes had had his marriage blessed in an Islamic ceremony at the local mosque, she found it hard to believe.
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The Yemeni community of South Shields, England is one of the UK's oldest Muslim populations
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In 1977, boxer Muhammad Ali visited and had his marriage blessed in the mosque
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Artist Tina Gharavi has created an exhibition documenting the stories of the community's elders
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She says she wants to capture the tales of this disappearing world
He arrived in @placeholder as a seaman in 1967, and returns every two years.