In Kurdistan, which has largely enjoyed security away from the conflicts that have devastated Iraq, steps have been taken in the field of developing sports, through the development of infrastructure and support.
Shelan Kamal loved helping her mother knead bread when she was young, to feel the muscles in her arms moving, which resulted in her discovery of her passion for bodybuilding, which for this forty-year-old woman from Iraqi Kurdistan turned into a means of encouraging gender equality.
Three years ago, this photographer and nutritionist returned from Germany to settle in the capital of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, only to face a very hostile society because of her practice of this sport.
Her passion for bodybuilding raised some eyebrows. However, she refused to submit to male opinions, which reject the idea of girls practicing such sports.
“Muscles are good for women, we want to highlight our beauty by developing our muscles,” Sheelan said in an interview with France Presse, as she trains to the beat of Western music in the gym in downtown Erbil, where she spends four hours a day.
Kamal, who opposes traditional standards of beauty, says, “I don’t like people taking a bad idea of me. I tired, suffered, and sacrificed to get to where I am today.”
And the blonde player with blue eyes and medium stature continues, “I hate that people look at women as inferior or as a sex symbol and consider that they must raise their children and beautify themselves for the sake of their husbands… Why can’t women combine beauty and strength?”
Kamal begins her day by training on a bicycle, while her hair falls on her shoulders, then completes training on muscle development machines and weightlifting.
show their muscles
She has been training since she was 22 years old.
She is currently working as a private trainer and posts on her Instagram page her international participation in bodybuilding competitions in Europe, sometimes waving the flag of the Kurdistan region.
Sheelan Kamal opened a new page in her career last year when she participated in a women’s bodybuilding competition in London. Then I competed again in another competition in Bochum, Germany, and a third and final tournament in Cologne, Germany, last April, and I finished third in all of them.
“Here, unfortunately, people are not used to seeing women in swimsuits showing off their muscles on the catwalk… I hope that one day they will accept seeing us on the catwalk showing our muscles,” she says.
Kamal hails from Sulaymaniyah, the second largest city in the Kurdistan region, but she immigrated to Germany with her uncle when she was 14 years old. She studied photography and became a photographer in a studio in Dusseldorf, in the west of the country.
She married Sheylan Kamal when she was 16 years old and had three children who are now in their twenties.
“When I was a little girl, I was full of energy, vitality and activity,” she says. “I used to help my mother in kneading bread and housework that required muscle effort.”
“Brake the barriers”
In Iraq, a conservative country, women’s sports are developing slowly. Many women’s teams have appeared in recent years in football, boxing, weightlifting or kickboxing.
In Kurdistan, which has largely enjoyed security away from the conflicts that have devastated Iraq, steps have been taken in the field of developing sports, through the development of infrastructure and support.
Ranjbar Ali, 45, who practices and trains bodybuilding in the same gym as Sheelan Kamal, tells AFP that he is “happy” to see more women entering gyms and to see some of them “like Sheelan breaking barriers and prejudices.” to reach a global level.
He also advocates for gender equality. “If some people think that it is shameful for a woman to show off her body and her muscles, then this should also apply to men,” says the young man, whose muscular muscles appeared under his black sports shirt.
Shilan Kamal dreams of becoming a world-class bodybuilder and the first Kurdish woman to compete in an international bodybuilding championship.
She believes that women in general and in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in particular should follow her example by standing up, changing their reality and lifting weights not only for their own health but also in order to deal with the issue of gender inequality.
“This sport is tough and tiring, and requires high physical effort, great concentration, and healthy food without fats or salts, especially in the days leading up to the championships,” she says.
She calls on women to “go to gyms instead of beauty salons, as exercise will make their bodies more beautiful and their health better.”
