Bodybuilders in Baghdad worship at a temple to the Terminator — actor turned California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger — in a country where the term "survival of the fittest" can take on extra resonance.
On a dusty side street in the once posh Karrada area of central Baghdad is a single-story brick house where wannabe beefcakes gather to emulate the former action-film star and dream of having a body like he once had.
Inside the Arnold fitness center, dozens of men pump iron, run on treadmills and work out on benches, rowing and weight machines.
The gym’s Iraqi owner is even said to have received a personal letter from the former Mr. Universe, best known for the iconic Terminator films.
But the owner is also publicity-shy, and the fitness trainers he employs say too much attention in Baghdad can be bad for the health — and could even lead to the business being terminated.
Every inch of wall within the gymnasium is plastered with posters of a beefy Arnold to inspire Iraqi men on to greater things.
No guns are allowed inside, but there are lockers available for those who want to store their automatic weapons before entering the gym.
Abdul Rahman, 36, was a member of the Schwarzenegger establishment for four years before starting his own gym. But that shut in the winter of 2006 with the onset of heavy sectarian fighting and it became a shelter for refugees instead.
“I want to be able to start my own gym again,” said Rahman, who now works for a private security company in the Iraqi capital. “The security job is good, but there’s good money in the gym business too.”
Earlier a run to the gym would certainly have burnt a hole in an average Iraqi’s purse. Membership cost about US$15 a month at a time when the average salary of a civil servant was only US$50.
Rahman said salaries have risen sharply since the US-led invasion in March 2003. Iraqi men are also more health conscious now, despite the constant fear that stalks the streets.
“I hope it will be safe one day for me to start my gym again,” Rahman said.
It is not known how many gyms there are in Baghdad, but residents say bodybuilding has a strong place in Iraqi society.
Modern exercise equipment started coming in only after the invasion, which also ended the sanctions era when imported goods were scarce.
Foreigners do not frequent commercial fitness centers because of the fear of kidnap, a foreign security officer said, adding that most international firms had their own in-house gyms.
There is a modest jogging course inside the tightly guarded Green Zone in central Baghdad where the US embassy and the Iraqi government are located, but it is only for foreigners.
Sectarian violence means outdoor exercise is now too risky in this city of 6 million people.
Satellite TV company executive Aimen Mohammed, 24, says that he works out three times a week because he wants to look good and because there is no open-air area to exercise.
Zawra, Baghdad’s best known public park, remains out of bounds to joggers.
“I go to the gym regularly for good health and good looks,” Mohammed said.
Policeman Ahmed Abdullah, 32, spends 15,000 dinars (US$12.50) a month to belong to a private gym. It is safer indoors as many of his colleagues have been victims of drive-by shootings.
The omnipresent threat of car bombs, rocket and mortar attacks keeps many Baghdad residents in running condition anyway, but serious fat burners head for indoor exercise centers.
There are no unisex gyms in Baghdad or women-only establishments because both Sunni and Shiite extremists believe it is haram, or forbidden and against Islam.
Al-Iraqiya state television has tried to fill the gap with a brief aerobics program, however. Every morning the channel broadcasts an aerobics lesson recorded at a city hotel protected by huge concrete blast walls.
It is conducted by three Iraqi women in colorful but loose-fitting tracksuits who perform dance-like moves to backing tracks of English pop music.
Since the invasion toppled former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein more than five years ago, scores of Iraqi men and women who owned or worked in beauty salons and gyms have been killed or threatened by religious extremists.
Women’s rights were recognized by Saddam’s secular Baath party.
Women would work openly, even as their traditional roles as mothers and wives remained deeply rooted in Iraqi society.
If the extremist threat against women is removed, the exercise business in the country could double. But until then, Iraqi women will have to sweat it out behind closed doors at home.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of