Shylan Kamal, an Iraqi Kurd, used to help her mother knead bread as a child until she realized it was a good method to gain muscle – and she liked it. Kamal, now 46 and a mother, sees her interest in bodybuilding as a question of gender equality in Iraq’s independent Kurdistan region.
“Having muscles is good for women too,” she told AFP during a session at a gym in the provincial capital Arbil, where she spends four hours training every day.
“We can express our beauty through bodybuilding,” Kamal said.
When the nutritionist and former photographer returned to Kurdistan from Germany three years ago, she discovered a conservative and patriarchal community in which her interest in bodybuilding raised some eyebrows.
Challenging Beauty Norms and Confronting Prejudice
But she refused to be swayed by others’ ideas.
“I don’t care at all what people say, I have my own opinions,” she said, adding that she dislikes the traditional beauty norms society imposes on women.
“I hate that people consider women as inferior beings or sex symbols and that they’re expected to look after the children and make themselves beautiful for their husbands,” she said.
“Why can’t women be both beautiful and strong at the same time?”
Kamal has been training since she was 22 years old. On Instagram, she can be seen posing in a bikini and flaunting her muscles at bodybuilding competitions across Europe, occasionally waving the Iraqi Kurdistan flag.
She moves between weight machines, lifting dumbbells, and performing pushups after a warm-up, her hair cascading over her shoulders.
She has placed third in three events in the United Kingdom and Germany in recent months. The most recent was the FIBO Global Fitness show in Cologne in mid-April.
“People here are not used to seeing women in bathing suits showing off their muscles,” Kamal said, lamenting prejudice in her hometown as well as from visitors outside who are astonished to learn she is Iraqi.
Bursting with vitality
Kamal, originally from Sulaimaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan’s second-largest city, immigrated to Germany with her uncle when she was 14 years old.
She married two years later. Her three children are now in their twenties.
She attended university and worked as a photographer in Duesseldorf while residing in Germany.
Kamal stated that her family has only been supportive of her endeavors.
“Since I was a kid I’ve been full of energy, and I need an outlet for that energy,” she said.
“When I was helping my mum knead the dough to make bread I could feel my muscles developing — and that made me happy.”
Breaking Barriers and Promoting Gender Equality
Women’s sports are steadily gaining acceptance in Iraqi society. Women’s participation in football, boxing, kickboxing, and weightlifting has increased in recent years.
Kurdistan’s relative stability – largely spared the horrors of conflict that have afflicted other parts of Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003 – has allowed the province to establish sporting facilities.
Ranjbar Ali, who practices in the same gym as Kamal, said he is happy to see “women like Shylan breaking down barriers and preconceived ideas to reach world-class level”.
Ali gave his support to Kamal’s efforts to achieve gender equality in bodybuilding, his biceps bulging from his black singlet.
“Some people think it shameful for women to show off their bodies and their muscles. But why does that not also apply to men?” the 45-year-old said.
Kamal’s advice to aspiring female bodybuilders in Kurdistan and abroad is simple: get to the gym and practice.
“It’s a physically demanding discipline that needs concentration and a healthy diet,” she said, adding the routine will help physical and mental health.
“I’m convinced that going to the gym is more beneficial than going to the beauty salon.”
