Ijaz Chaudary
Sports for women in Pakistan for a long time meant some indoor or racket disciplines such as tennis, badminton, table tennis, and netball to name a few a long side athletics. Hockey and cricket are the two team games where Pakistani men have been crowned world champions. However woman have undertaken the two disciplines. Pakistan’s national women hockey and cricket teams have been competing internationally for quite some time.
In recent times, the girls were seen breaking new frontiers. They have ventured into martial arts. Women’s national championships for judo, karate and taekwondo are being held regularly for the last several years. Still, lifting weights competitively is seen a bit too unfeminine for Pakistani women in a conservative male dominant culture. However, history was created on the 16th of February when for the first time in Pakistan a women powerlifting competition was held in Green’s banquet hall in Lahore. The Saif Sports Saga Open Powerlifting Championship drew no less than 35 females in all the seven weight categories doing all the three lifts: squat, bench press and deadlift. Most of them were school, college and university students but it was a pleasant surprise to find a couple of working women including a 47 year old mother of five kids. The man behind all this is AqeelJaved Butt. Presently, the secretary general of the Punjab Powerlifting Association, Aqeel Butt won a number of medals for Pakistan at various international competitions both in weight lifting and powerlifting. “I represented Pakistan abroad many a time. Most of the competing nations also included female competitors. That made me wonder, ‘Why not Pakistani women?’ More so as lifting is one sport women can easily practice and compete without compromising our culture and traditions: A purely indoor discipline with full length outfit permitted even internationally and you see girls with hijab as well.”
A three month preparatory camp was set up. Aqeel tells, “Obviously most of the girls had to be taught right from the basics of the sport, entirely new to them “. However, a few girls directly entered the meet without attending the camp. These included a couple of international athletes plus UshanSohail, Pakistan’s No 1 tennis player. “I do squat, bench press, etc. as a part of my physical training for tennis. It was a great fun to do all this competitively.”
The completion drew a good crowd and there was a wonderful atmosphere. One competitor shouted, “Allah-o Akbar”, before every lift reminiscent of the legendary Iranian weight lifter HosseinRezazadeh. The former World and Olympic champion super heavy weight champion also shouted an Islamic prayer before every lift. The spectators were enthusiastic participants. There were announcements from them for cash prizes throughout for lifters achieving various mile stones, for instance, the first to deadlift 100 kg.
Powerlifting is an excellent addition to Pakistan’s women sports. It should make them fitter, stronger and more confident.
