Why Kurdish women are out in front as Iraq’s top athletes
When Iraq’s female cycling team snatched silver and bronze medals at a landmark pan-Arab race, it was thanks to athletes from the autonomous Kurdish region.
The country’s toughest female competitors, its bestequipped facilities and most experienced coaches are not in the capital Baghdad, but in the Kurdish-majority north.
And the three medals won by the Iraqi female cyclists in September at the tournament in Algeria were regarded as proof of sporting prowess in a region that has governed itself since 1991.
The team earned a bronze in the relay race, where three of its four cyclists were Kurdish, and a second bronze and a silver in individual events.
The silver-winning athlete, Mazda Rafiq, 20, comes from the Kurdish region’s second city, Sulaimaniyah.
“Since I was a little girl, I’ve wanted to represent Iraq in a cycling race, and today I was able to do that,” Rafiq said.
The athlete, who trains in Erbil, the region’s capital,credits her victory to “the support of society and our parents”.
Decades ago, all of Iraq’s 18 provinces had thriving female athletic scenes, with active clubs in different sports.
But in the 1980s, a series of conflicts began, followed by an international embargo that brought development projects to a halt and led to the rise of militias.
Those factors, combined with growing conservatism in sections of Iraqi society, chipped away at sports culture for women.
But in the north, relatively insulated from these trends, Kurdish women have enjoyed an athletic awakening – one that Iraq’s clubs and national teams are benefiting from.
A female cycling team in the conservative southern city of Diwaniyah regularly poaches two Kurdish athletes from Sulaimaniyah – more than 500 kilometres to the north – for national and regional competitions.
“They are better and the club knows they’ll help them to get a better score,” said Sajed Salim, of Iraq’s Cycling Federation.
One reason for the success of Kurdish female athletes may be the relatively lax social norms in the autonomous region, said Iraqi volleyball champion and club coach Randy Metti.
“Kurdistan is more open to women’s sports than the provinces of the south,” where traditions and tribal customs restrict how much women and girls can do outside the home, Metti said.
He coaches the Akad Ainkawa women’s volleyball team in Erbil three times a week, all year long.
Player Mirna Najeeb brings her seven-month-old daughter to every training session.
“I was advised not to exercise six months after giving birth but I told the whole world that I would start again,” Najeeb said.
She and fellow Akad players are regularly called up to Iraq’s national team to compete internationally. “A player has everything here – modern training facilities, interested clubs and great coaches,” she said.
The clubs also enjoy widespread public support.
“The fact that they have restaurants and recreational spaces encourages families to come to support the female athletes,” said Khaled Bashir, a member of Iraq’s Volleyball Federation.
That popularity often translates into material support for local clubs, allowing them to keep improving. Elsewhere in Iraq, teams rely on funds from the Ministry of Youth and Sports, which barely cover basic expenses.
“There are talented athletes everywhere but they do not emerge in the other provinces because the structures are not the same as those in Kurdistan,” Mr Bashir said.
The numbers speak for themselves. This year’s national volleyball championship brought together 11 female Kurdish teams against four other female teams from the rest of Iraq – all of them from Baghdad, he said.
Women’s basketball, too, has become a hit sport in Iraq thanks to Kurdish athletes – including all-female teams in Dohuk, Halabja and Erbil.
The stability in the region has contributed to their advancement, said the head of Iraq’s Basketball Federation, Hussein Al Omeidi.
Of Iraq’s seven female basketball clubs, three are from the Kurdish region – a source of pride for female basketball federation member Wassen Hanoun.
“It’s an important proportion that really shows how much female Kurdish sports dominate.”