³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

1. He was born in the wrong era

33-year-old Hamza was born in 1990 but believes he should have been born a lot earlier. “I think I should have been born in the 1920s, or 1950s,” he says. “I’m very old-fashioned when it comes to a lot of things. If I’m dating, I would not be, ‘Let’s split this 50/50’… I asked you out on a date, I’m paying for this.” He likes to think of himself as “a classic gentleman. James Bond-esque,” he laughs.

2. He wants to end the phrase “man up”

While he’s old-fashioned in many ways, Hamza thinks some traditional views of masculinity are wrong. “If I’m having a tough day and I go [to tell] one of my friends and they say, ‘Just man up, buddy’, What does man-up mean?... It’s just a get-out-of-jail card for someone who doesn’t know what to say to you.” He wants men to talk about their problems. He remembers going through a tough time and pretending to his friends that he was fine. They persisted in checking in on him, giving him an option to talk when he was ready. “It’s amazing how as soon as you open up it feels so much better. But I had to have my friends ask me that question… We need to speak about it. There’s no point being ‘manly’ and holding everything in. The suicide rate for men is way higher than women and it shouldn’t be like this… Speak about your feelings.”

3. He believes in a good cry

Anyone who watched Hamza win Strictly will know he’s very comfortable showing emotion. “I cried like a baby throughout Strictly,” he says. “The emotions came over me. That is me. I’m a sensitive guy.” He thinks it would be good if more people could be open. “Don’t feel that just because I have to be manly I have to show off this hard exterior.”

4. His dad showed him what it is to be a man

Hamza grew up in Sudan, North Africa, where life was “beautifully crazy”. He says that in Sudan, tradition states that when a couple get married the woman will move in with her husband’s family. When Hamza’s parents got married, his father moved in with his mother’s family and offered help to his widowed mother-in-law. “That opened up a whole different ballgame to me, because you can see this man, who’s meant to be this traditional male, breaking the rules… to go and help out his wife’s side of the family.” Tradition said his wife should take care of the house, but Hamza’s father believed in splitting the work. That view rubbed off on Hamza. “My father breaks all rules when it comes to stereotypes – and I’m a good example of that – and that gave me the confidence that you can be who you are.”

As a wildlife expert, Hamza Yassin knows a thing or two about how other species view family and gender roles

5. He came to the UK without knowing a word of English

Hamza’s family came to the UK when he was eight years old. “I didn’t speak a word of English,” he says. “We landed in Newcastle and then we dotted around – Whitehaven, Carlisle, back to Newcastle – then we settled in the Midlands.” He says he found his identity in the UK when he was at school and started playing rugby. “[My teacher] Mr. Ramsden… said, ‘Football is a game for gentlemen played by thugs. Rugby is a game for thugs played by gentlemen’… We were taught ‘what is a gentleman’ by him to some degree. This is what you do. This is how you behave.”

6. He’s very broody

Hamza is currently single but he’s very much thinking about becoming a father. “I am so broody. I am 100% broody,” he says. “I would love to have a family one day.” If he does, and becomes father to a son, he says he’ll raise him just as he was raised. “I’d rinse and repeat exactly what my father did for me… If I’m half the man that my father is I would die a happy man.”

7. He thinks silverback gorillas have got masculinity right

As a wildlife expert, Hamza knows a thing or two about how other species view family and gender roles. Silverback gorillas have a version of masculinity he respects. “A silverback looks after his family,” he says. “At night, he sends them all up into the trees, where they make nests… He knows he’s so heavy that [if he slept in the trees] throughout the night the branches would give way and he’d fall to the bottom of the forest floor. So he sleeps at the bottom… while he sends his wives and children up there to get a peaceful night’s sleep… To me that is the epitome of what a masculine animal or human is: a man protecting his family, protecting his resources, and being that caring father.”

8. His dyslexia is a gift, except when it comes to dating

“My dyslexia is my gift to this world,” says Hamza. “I would say I see the world in a different way and it’s all down to my dyslexia.” However, he finds being dyslexic throws up a few hurdles in the dating world. “It’s all via text message!” he says. “You’re going to get, ‘Hey babe, shop over here 247’… because predictive text has picked out what it thinks I’m trying to say… I would rather sit face-to-face.”

9. He thinks he’s the black sheep of his family

Hamza thinks he breaks a lot of the traditional rules of his family. He reflects both his father and mother and doesn’t try to show any artificially “tough” side. “I am the breaking of that rule,” he says. “I’m the black sheep of the family.” He says that also applies to his choice of career. His parents are gynaecologists (“so the birds and bees conversation happened early”) and the rest of his family followed similar paths. His pursuit of wildlife made him unusual. “They’re all doctors and dentists. I’m like, nope, I’m gonna do my thing.”