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Iraqi women with Paralympic dreams hope to turn the tables
The Straits Times
|July 28, 2025
Iraqi table tennis player Nur Al-Huda Sarmad adjusts her wheelchair before striking the ball into play, braving sweltering heat, social stigma and inadequate facilities as she dreams of taking her team to the Paralympics.
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DIWANIYAH - Iraqi table tennis player Nur Al-Huda Sarmad adjusts her wheelchair before striking the ball into play, braving sweltering heat, social stigma and inadequate facilities as she dreams of taking her team to the Paralympics.
Sarmad and seven other Iraqi women who live with disabilities train three times a week at a community centre in the southern city of Diwaniyah, preparing for an upcoming tournament that could qualify them for the national Paralympic team.
The facilities, however, are far from Olympic-standard.
"The tennis tables are broken, there are power outages and we even have to buy our own paddles," said Sarmad, 25.
With no dedicated training facility, the team often have to share the three second-hand tables at the public community centre with visitors.
This story is from the July 28, 2025 edition of The Straits Times.
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