Skateboards, Sisterhood & Transformation: Meet Iraq’s First Female Skate Community 

When Ishtar Obaid arrived in Baghdad in 2023, she picked up her skateboard and filmed herself skating down Karrada Al Dakhil, a lively main road, posting it on social media and asking, Who wants to come skate with me? “To my surprise, there were no stares or disapproving glares for skating in a public place, just a flood of eager girls, ready to skate,” she says. It was a moment that would kickstart a movement – and so began Baghdad Skate Girls, marking Iraq’s first-ever community dedicated to creating a safe, supportive space for women to embrace skateboarding and build a healthy relationship with their city.

Skateboarding is, at heart, a sport born from counterculture and the streets – a symbol of freedom, self-expression and a way to break away from the rules and challenge authority. In the last decade, skateboarding has been gaining traction in the Global South, where young people crave spaces that exist outside of the grip of traditional power structures. Whether it’s Palestine’s SkatePal or Afghanistan’s Skateistan, these communities are using skateboarding as a form of resistance and a way to reclaim their autonomy. Now, Iraq is catching that same wave.

Baghdad’s first skatepark rolled into action in February 2025, thanks to the efforts of Make Life Skate Life, the same crew behind Iraq’s very first skatepark, Suli, in Sulaymaniyah (the Kurdish region of Iraq). Located in the heart of the capital, Baghdad Skate Park is now run by Forsah IQ, an NGO with a range of inspiring initiatives – including the groundbreaking Baghdad Skate Girls, spearheaded by Ishtar. Built in just three weeks with support from the German and French Embassies, the park overcame challenges in securing a location amid Baghdad’s congestion and pollution. Despite its difficult location and security checkpoints, it was ultimately approved.

For Ishtar and the girls she mentors, skateboarding isn’t just a sport, it’s a form of resistance in a country where women are still fighting for basic rights. This is especially evident in the wake of Iraq’s controversial 2024 amendment to its personal status law, which allows girls as young as nine to marry. While the law has sparked widespread protests, it highlights the deeply rooted and systemic issue of gender inequality in the country – a stark contrast to the freedom and empowerment that skateboarding offers young Iraqi girls. “I will never come to a point where I accept how things are,” says Ishtar. “There are a lot of dysfunctions in our society that I just cannot accept. When people say, ‘It is what it is,’ or, ‘You can’t change Iraq,’ I disagree. It’s not about quantity or how loud your voice is, it’s about creating these macro communities.”

Ishtar knows a thing or two about defying limits. The jiu-jitsu world champion, photographer and founder of Iraqi Female Photographers moved to Iraq in 2023 with a mission. Born in Moscow, she was raised in the UK and went on to co-found an events management company before arriving in Iraq at the crossroads of profound change. Despite years of conflict, sectarianism and gender inequality, Iraq is a nation “starting over”, as Ishtar puts it: “With this new identity, you have a lot of room to explore and create here.” This rebirth, she believes, is Iraq’s cultural renaissance, particularly among youth and women.  

In recent years, Baghdad has seen a surge of independent brands and initiatives celebrating Iraqi culture – such as streetwear brand Zuqaq13; Iraq’s first photography festival, Baghdad Photo Week; the Tarkib contemporary art fair; Babylon Documentary Film Festival, the first of its kind in the country; and the branding studio Ya Khadijah. There’s also been a wave of green initiatives, such as the Fedek project, which has reintroduced palm trees to areas destroyed by war.

This creative scene is driven by the resilient Gen Zs of Iraq. “Young Iraqis are incredibly creative, despite the systemic restrictions – we don’t see all of it,” says Ishtar, adding that even after the years of disappointment, Gen Z are “just getting on with it” and finding new ways to produce and create in an environment that’s long stifled them.

“It’s why, when I uploaded that post in 2023 asking girls to join me in some skating, it became much more than just skating,” says Ishtar. Before the skatepark, the group met weekly at Al-Zawraa Park or skated on the streets, where some girls felt uncomfortable, fearing disapproval. Starting with just a few members, the group quickly grew. Even the local boys, who had skated together for years, lacked a dedicated safe space – something they’ve now found at the skate park. Classes are available for those aged 6 and up, while the girls’ group, made up of around 20 women aged 19 to 50, meets weekly. “Skating has become a way for a girl to overcome barriers,” says Ishtar. “As in, literally stepping onto a skateboard and pushing – I feel like that’s an accurate metaphor for all women to take that step forward. Watching them all do something out of the ordinary has been powerful. Now, the girls get to do what the boys can.”  

When Ishtar first started skating in the city, she remembers thinking, I can’t believe I’m skating on the streets of Baghdad. Today, she says the skaters – boys and girls alike – feel that they’re part of a cultural revolution: “a revolution with a piece of wood on wheels, where these kids are taking up space and finally being seen.” Ishtar adds that onlookers’ reactions are not of anger, but of surprise and even relief. “Baghdad is changing, and people are letting their girls skate,” she says, adding how well the boys have adapted, too. “At first, they didn’t really know how to interact with girls, since skating was seen as a boys’ thing. But they’ve understood the need to share this space with girls, and it’s been really nice watching them get along.”

One young woman, Hanan, discovered Baghdad Skate Girls on Instagram. After messaging the page last year, she met other skaters at Al-Zawraa Park, where Make Life Skate Life gave her a board to try for the first time. “It’s so cool to join other girls at the skate park – we have so much in common beyond skateboarding,” she says. Despite living in the Sadr City district, where it’s not easy to skateboard on the streets, and she often faces discouraging words, Hanan is encouraged by the community. “There are girls in my neighbourhood who want to skate but their families don’t allow them. So it’s great to have a place where we can skate safely, and for free. Everything is difficult at first and society doesn’t always accept unfamiliar sports, but I’m hopeful. Skateboarding shows our talent and helps change how people see us.”

This sense of visibility and empowerment is at the heart of Ishtar’s mission. Reclaiming space for young girls isn’t just about creating safe spaces to skate; it’s about expanding what young Iraqis see as possible for themselves. Ishtar has been a driving force in this movement, advocating for policies mandating 30% female participation in all sports – a significant achievement in Iraq, where women’s involvement in sport has been historically limited. She’s also been instrumental in growing local championships, providing training courses and increasing women’s representation in coaching and refereeing.

Rana, another member of Baghdad Skate Girls, is a powerful example of this shift in mindset. “I loved the idea of feeling free through a small wooden board,” she says, reflecting on her skateboarding journey, which also began in 2023. “Every time I step on the skateboard, the adrenaline rush gives me a feeling of joy and challenge – especially when I’m surrounded by strong, successful women who come to try something new and push their limits.” Although she acknowledges that challenges in Iraq are not exclusive to women – ”I believe every person faces different struggles in life” – she believes “women in Iraq face these struggles with stronger hearts and endless determination”. And so, for Rana skateboarding is not just a sport, it’s a form of self-empowerment. “Every time I skate, I prove to myself that I can challenge my limits and do what makes me happy in this society.”

What started as an individual act of courage has given Iraq’s young women not just a sport, but a voice – and as Ishtar looks to the future, her efforts extend beyond the skate park and into the sustainability of the movement that she’s been part of pioneering. By training young men and women to take on roles as skate instructors and park maintainers, she is ensuring that skateboarding, and the empowerment it represents, will continue to flourish for generations of Iraqis. “There’s enough space for all these women, and the more women that you lift up on a platform, the stronger you are,” she says. “That’s where we are right now.”