ABSTRACT
Authors’ brief overview of women in sport in Iraq The decision to contribute this chapter formed part of a long-standing mission agreed between us (the three chapter authors) to exchange information amongst academics in order to seek solutions for problems related to the deterioration of women’s sport in Iraq. Current problems include not only the lack of resources and the under-representation of women, but also restrictions on and negative attitudes to participation. Our work in the Colleges of Physical Education has drawn attention to this important trend in the Iraqi sporting community, exacerbated by the American occupation since 2003. The American invasion of Iraq on 9 April 2003 has led to a new cultural era. So-called ‘democracy’ has become a cover for many phenomena which were not
hitherto common in Iraqi society such as religious and social radicalism on the one hand, and ethnic and national conflicts on the other. Unfortunately, the building of a new cultural framework includes changes in all things, regardless of their previous success, based on the claim that if it was a part of the past political regime, it needed changing. The radical political, cultural and religious trends now present in the country have had negative consequences and have even led to conflicts. One example has been calls for people to adopt radical attitudes against woman who practice sport. Realities have included actions ranging from exclusion and marginalisation to forbiddance and absolute prevention. As a consequence, many families have decided to forbid their daughters from participating in sporting activities since they are afraid of the security situation, the armed gangs, denominational militias, kidnapping and raping incidents. These are some of the reasons for the declining participation of girls and women in sport at school, club and university levels in Iraq since 2003. All such reasons are embedded in the nature of current religious and political struggles. The rights of women are one aspect at the heart of the struggle. There have been more successful times for women in sport. When we were students at college, we read and enjoyed the history of Olympic sports in modern Iraq, which started with the establishment of the first Iraqi National Olympic committee in 1948. The writer Dhiya’a AlMunshi (1987) told us about an important period in the sporting history of our country during the British occupation after the First World War and how British soldiers brought a number of sports to the country, including football. Iraqi men learned this game in many cities like Basrah, Baghdad, Mosul and Habaniyah, and football became very popular. Although modern Iraqi sport (for men) was popularised by foreigners, there was also a long tradition of other sports, such as wrestling, which were rooted in the Iraqi, Assyrian and Babylonian civilisations. Sport in schools and the provision of specialist teacher education was initially for boys and men. Training for professional qualifications in physical education (for men) started in 1938 in Baghdad with a cohort of seven. However, poor economic and political conditions led to its discontinuation, and a system operated in some places in which high-school teachers trained elementary school teachers in schools. In 1954 the Higher Institute of Physical Education in Baghdad started to recruit men for teacher training; the length of study was three years. In 1956, moves were made to establish a branch of physical education for girls, linked to the Faculty of Education for Girls at Baghdad University. The first women graduated in 1960. During the regime of the Al-Baath Party (1968-2003), the same principles that underlay women’s equality with men in all aspects of life were also applied to physical activity and competitive sport. To promote the participation of women, the Iraqi Women’s Sport Federation was founded in 1992, initiated by the Iraqi Sports Council with the approval of the Iraqi National Olympic Committee. Its role was to develop women’s sport in the provinces with the formation of four clubs for girls (Al Anbar, Najaf, Karbala and Mosul), the provision of clubs later extending to ten provinces in places such as Kerkuk, Baghdad,
Wasit, Maysan, Muthanna and Basra. By 2001 the experiment had succeeded in increasing the number of female participants in individual and team sports, and of qualified trainers, referees and organisers (Abd Maleh and Hassan Mohammed 2002). Increased interest and activity was motivated by women’s domestic competitions, hosted by the Women’s Federation through its annual programme, and the move by the Arab and Asian International Federation to broaden its programme of seminars, conferences and activities. This great period of advancement for women in sport disintegrated after 2003. Sport in the period before 2003 was imbued with political ideologies of the former regime. The son of the former president, Uday Saddam Hussein, was President of the National Iraqi Olympic Committee for many years. Although there were many criticisms about the style and nature of the leadership of sport in Iraq at that time, we cannot ignore the social and cultural development of that secular political regime in relation to women. Many women practised sports alongside men without any religious or cultural restrictions. In addition, there was a popularisation of the role of women in training and leading Iraq’s youth, and in joining the national teams. A time was reached when there were no constraints on sportswear, travelling or practising sports that remain problematic in some Arab countries. Looking ahead to the future, the election of the new Iraqi Olympic Committee in 2009 has brought cautious optimism. Mr Ra’ad Hamoudy, who is a very popular figure in Iraq, it is now its head. The expectation is that sport, especially women’s sport, will receive great support in a way that differs from the past few years. The situation in Iraq continues to change daily, of course, and remains unstable in many ways, but there is a hope that the rebuilding will begin again in a positive way for the men and women of the country, including in the field of sport. The massive changes that war and occupation have brought in recent years have led to a significant decline in women’s sport in Iraq. We think, consequently, that it is important and necessary to share vignettes, through excerpts of interviews with five professional sporting women. The authors conducted four interviews. The last is an interview reported in the Al-Sabah newspaper on 16 February 2008. The interviews capture the participants’ views and experiences of women’s sport in Iraq, and are shared here in the hope that this contribution will help Iraqi women in the future and bring our current challenges to the attention of a wider international audience.
