“You’re going to Iraq? We don’t insure travellers visiting that country” was the resounding response I received from every single insurance company I rang. People I knew asked why I would even consider visiting such a place, knowing of the ‘dangers’ regularly heard about the Middle East on the news. In the end I had no option but to pay for war-zone type insurance for correspondents visiting high-risk areas.
Words & photography by Jenna Selby
Collectives is a series created by Rachael Sherlock, in association with SKATEISM and Nike SB
At one stage I have to admit, people’s words got to me and I’d even considered putting a tracking device on my phone because I would be arriving in the small hours of the morning and was concerned about the safety of the taxi journey to the hotel.
As I stepped off the plane in Erbil I couldn’t help but laugh. Honestly it was a total forehead slap moment. The airport was much like the one I’d left back in the UK, perhaps with slightly more amenable customs officers! The taxi to the hotel passed a big generic shopping mall on its journey. The budget hotel was like any budget one back home and the area as a whole was totally different to my (I hate to admit) preconceived ideas.
The purpose of this trip was to meet up with the collective Skate Girls Suli who are based in the region known as Sulaymaniyah (Suli for short), approximately 3 hours west of Erbil and 5 hours north of Baghdad. It is an area referred to by the locals as Kurdistan.
Their scene is a relatively new one as it was only in May last year that Make Life Skate Life (MLSL) oversaw construction of the park with the aid of 30 volunteers from all over the world. “The skatepark is built in a private park and thankfully the authorities were very supportive of the project” explained Arne Hillerns, founder of MLSL. “Although not involved in the initial build, the local skaters whose numbers had grown since we were first there, joined in with the construction of the additional beginners area at the end of last year so could really take ownership of the park.”
“We chose Suli because Samantha who I work with at MLSL, used to live there and was teaching English to kids. She has very good contacts there and found out that there was a small skate scene in Suli. She approached them and asked if they would be interested in a skatepark project and to no surprise, the locals got on board! Samantha went back to document the scene, we started an online fundraiser and the rest is history.”
The skatepark is fully managed by the locals who also started the skate classes and the refugee program at Barika refugee camp. The park is managed by Safeen and he works with and oversees four main skate coaches local to the area Mohammd, Hastyar, Dyar and Fatma.
MLSL’s ethos in building parks is “to help with the implementation of skate programs that aim to include females, disadvantaged and refugee youth, and use skateboarding as a tool for teaching cross-cultural communication, creative self expression and resilience to underserved youth populations.”
It was through the build of the park and this ethos that Skate Girls Suli (SGS) came about. However unlike other collectives where the group is defined by their skating, regularly arranging skate meet ups and the latest landed tricks are posted frequently, SGS is essentially in place to show their involvement with the coaching to the disadvantaged younger generations alongside their male counterparts. It’s not about promoting what the individuals do but about the collective of what they are doing as a whole.
Fatma who runs the SGS group was 16 when she started skateboarding, she found out about it through social media. She was involved in the video fundraiser to help raise the money to build the Suli Skatepark, which she sites now as being like a local community centre. Although she was essentially the only female to skate before the park was built she now gets to skate with a range of skaters of different levels and genders who have helped push her skating. She is one of the four main coaches who work regularly for the park either on site or at the local refugee camp. “I like to teach people and in our city, we have a lot of refugee areas around Suli. We like to help them and teach them how to skate. We hope that in the future we can build a Skatepark in the camp to get more refugees involved and having fun skating.”
Fatma has passed her skills on to a number of the younger kids, who are now getting to the age where they too can become involved with the coaching side of things. Laly accidentally got into skating one day when she and her Mum were taking a walk across the park. She spotted the skate park being built and that was it. She had lessons at the park from Fatma, and now a regular face, Laly is one of the new breed of coaches coming through the ranks and regularly helps teach the local refugee children.
“It means a lot because I have been skating at this park from when it was built and the good things are it gathers people from different ages, different nationalities and everyone is helping each other (including Mums and Dad’s) and you get to know so many new people.”
This really is what SGS is about. The scene is a small one in Sulaymaniyah and everyone knows everyone else and they all skate together. Essentially it is the building of Suli Skate Park that has created the collective. Everyone is just referred to as a skater here, not a female skater or male skater, just a skater.
Final notes for anyone thinking of travelling to skate Sulaymaniyay – which I would highly recommend you do
- Skip the high-risk insurance…oh and also don’t panic about a visa you don’t need one for Erbil…or you too will be forehead slapping…
- The skate park is a lot of fun and you get to see an incredible sunset every night.
- You couldn’t find a more welcoming bunch of people and a more beautiful area to visit. Thanks Mohammed and Dyar for being our most excellent tour guides!
