It doesn’t happen much in the Arab world, but a coach here decided in January to start an all-female wrestling team, the first ever in Iraq. The wrestlers love it and already dream of competing in the Olympics.

But there are many in this town south of Baghdad, which like much of Iraq is religious, conservative and governed largely by tribal tradition, who want the dozen girls and young women on the team to stop wrestling immediately. One tribesman has said they should be “slaughtered” if they continue. A Shiite cleric says the team should be banned because wrestling can lead to promiscuity and “transgressions” against Islam.

As a result of the pressure, four wrestlers have quit. But the rest, for the moment empowered by the post-invasion promise of greater democracy and equality, are defying the threats.

“They think we are loose girls just because we play sports,” said Ikram Hamid, 25, one team member.

Farah Shakir, 17, said, “It really is something different for Iraq, but I love the challenge.”

Big ambitions

The women have touched a nerve, perhaps partly because of their ambitions. Three other teams were set up in Iraq after Diwaniya’s were formed with the backing of Iraq’s wrestling federation. In June, all the teams took part in a championship, which the Diwaniya team won, qualifying for an Asian tournament in September in freestyle wrestling.

Some local people have become captivated by the female wrestlers and feel they are a fitting challenge to Iraq’s entrenched tribal and religious establishment, whose hold on society and people’s lives paradoxically became much tighter after the 2003 invasion. One supporter, Haidar Walid, 20, called the team a “sign of evolution and freedom.”

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