All Female Wrestling Team in Iraq…Now That’s Hot

August 31, 2009

In a town south of Baghdad, a group of women are causing a bit of controversy by forming the first ever, all female wrestling team in Iraq. The New York Times reports that the team, which was formed in January, has hopes of going to the Olympics…if they are still around by then.

In the small town of Diwaniya, where the team was formed and currently practices at the local sports club, conservative tribal leaders and local clerics are speaking out against the team and attempting to shut them down. The pressure has grown so high that four members have already quit.

Ikram Hamid, a 25-year-old wrestler, said, “They think we are loose girls just because we play sports.”

Gaith al-Kassir, a local tribal leader, said “Women can do sports at home.” Great. Maybe they can set up a wrestling ring next to the kitchen and fight other mothers while the kids are at school, but not before they make dinner and clean the house first.

Women always face a challenge whenever they tackle anything formerly reserved for men. The conservative thought train seems to work like this: if women leave the house, learn new things, or do things that men used to do, then there goes the neighborhood. But beneath it all, it is a fear of change and a fear that women will surpass them that causes this tension.

Luckily, despite the threats, other team members have refused to back down to social pressure, especially after an encouraging win that qualified them for the Asian freestyle wrestling tournament in September. In addition, three more teams have been set up under Iraq’s wrestling federation even though some politicians are working to dissolve them.

Hopefully, the team’s dream of making it to the Olympics will come true and they will join Egypt and Morocco, the only other two countries with female wrestling teams, in the freestyle wrestling division. Perhaps then national pride will overcome these men’s superiority complex.

Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images for DAGOC