Working out all the rage in Afghanistan

With freedom comes the desire to sculpt rock-hard physiques
Declan Walsh, Chronicle Foreign Service

Friday, November 26, 2004

Kabul -- In the old days, Afghanistans tough guys wore beards and wool caps, studied the Quran and fought flinty mountain battles against rival tribes and foreign invaders.

These days, its all waxed chests, cheesy grins, bulging biceps and a quiet reverence for the governor of California.

"People dont want to fight anymore. They want to look healthy, like in the movies," said Temour Shah, a beefy 23-year-old, as he pumped weights under an Arnold Schwarzenegger poster at Golds Gym in central Kabul.

Bodybuilding is the new craze of postwar Afghanistan, particularly among young urban men. According to the national bodybuilding federation, the number of gyms in Kabul has doubled to 46 in the past two years; another 30 are scattered across the country.

Starting at 5 a.m., bodybuilding veterans and weedy wannabes crowd into sweaty halls across the city, grappling with clanking weight machines and preening before cracked mirrors. Conditions are spartan - water coolers, neat white towels and even showers are unknown luxuries - but enthusiasm runs high. Barely able to afford the $7 monthly membership, some enthusiasts work out in their baggy shalwar kameez trousers; others use their work clothes.

"Everyone wants to look strong, but the problem is calories. Most clients just dont have access to enough food," said Hafizullah Anis, the 26-year-old owner of Golds Gym. To help his poorer clients, Anis offers free protein supplements bought through the military supply story at Bagram air base, north of Kabul. "This is not just about business," he said.

The streets of Kabul are covered with images of Ahmed Shah Massood, the anti-Taliban warlord who was elevated to the status of national hero after his assassination Sept. 9, 2001. But inside the gyms, the governor of California is king.

"I studied Schwarzeneggers career carefully," said Noorulhoda Sherzad, current holder of the Mr. Kabul title. "He achieved everything he wanted. I have dreams, too."

The 28-year-old dentistry student started bodybuilding under the Taliban, when the sport was tolerated, but just barely.

"The competitions were ridiculous," said Sherzad. "You could only show your top. And of course you had to have a beard."

Like many, he said his ambitions were sparked by movies such as "Conan the Destroyer" and "Terminator." But he won his coveted crown through a combination of strict diet, daily workouts and careful study of Mr. Olympia videos.

"I would watch the poses and select the best ones -- no mirror, just on my own," he said with a smile.

The gradual advent of peace has fuelled the surge in fitness. Refugees have been returning from Pakistan with bodybuilding expertise, money and weight machines.

Ariz Arzo, one of the Afghanistans original weightlifting aficionados, owns a run-down gym in a crumbling building overlooking the dried-out, rubbish- strewn Kabul River. With no electricity or toilet facilities, the former dentists office is basic even by local standards.

Some of the weights are fashioned from old engine parts and rough concrete molds. Arzo proudly displays his first exercise machine -- a homemade contraption of weights, hooks and pulleys that resembles, at first glance, an elaborate torture device.

But it is the spirit, not the dumbbells, that counts, insists Arzo, a smiling, stocky man in his 50s. He still boasts 150 "students," of whom the poorest work out for free.

"I am one of the originals. They come to me for my experience," he boasted beside a pouting portrait of himself on a podium in the 1970s.

Bodybuilding is a natural sport for a culture that prizes machismo. Boxing, tae kwon do and dog fighting are other popular pastimes. The national sport, buzkashi, involves two teams on horseback whacking each other while hauling a headless calf carcass around a field.

After a quarter century of conflict, the relatively peaceful presidential election last month has excited hopes that the days of conscripting the countrys strong young men into fighting are over. Today, "our gun is our muscle," said Ahmad Ranjber, a police officer and gym owner.

The body-conscious vogue also reflects slowly widening freedoms. Social norms still prevent boys and girls from mingling in public, but many younger bodybuilders coyly admit they hope to impress the opposite sex.

"I am exercising for the big body, so the girls like me," said Feroz Khan, a 20-year-old truck driver at Bagram Air Base, taking a break from his first workout. He boasted in broken English that he has an American girlfriend called Nikita, sparking sniggers of disbelief from his friends. "I am a love man. I am not for arranged marriage," he insisted.

There is one notable absence from the cramped gym halls. Women are still forbidden, by custom if not by law.

"We had three girls working out in my gym but they got scared and left," said Fazal Ahmad, secretary general of the Afghan Bodybuilding Federation. "Some extremists were saying bad things about them."

A small number of female athletes work out in private, but they "would not want to be interviewed," he added. "They are not ready for that yet."

Regrettably, the unsavory side of modern sport has also infected Afghanistans bodybuilding fervor. The prestigious Mr. Afghanistan title lies vacant since controversy engulfed the contest in September. There was a "small problem" with one of the finalists explained Ahmad, who was one of the judges.

"We suspected him of doping," Ahmad said. "Nobody thought he could have built himself up so fast."