By FNC Producer Ghaleb Tawfiq, Baghdad Bureau

Body building and weightlifting is not a new sport to Iraqis, in fact during the seventies and eighties Iraq won a lot of medals and awards at Arab and Asian championships. But since the nineties these two sports began declining due to lack of new machines, proper training, and because of International sanctions imposed on Iraq the country’s athletes were unable to participate in regional or International Games. In addition to that, there weren’t any private clubs in Baghdad then, only a handful of gov. controlled sports clubs.

After the war in 2003, with hundreds of young Iraqis joining the private security companies or  working as bodyguards for Gov. officials or businessmen, the need for bodybuilding has increased again, so dozens of private clubs have opened up throughout Baghdad and in other Iraqi cities where young men are joining these clubs to pump up their muscles.

“Mr. Olympia” is the club we visited last weekend and saw dozens of young men busy working out, lifting weights. The owner of the club “Captain Farahan”, an ex- body builder himself, said he opened this place in 2005, and for him it was a dream come true. He is happy to show the boys proper training for this sport, which according to him means not only having big muscles but learning abut discipline and respecting others. He supervises the training and provides needed protein and amino acids for the trainees.

“Captain Farahan” said his club has 150 members who pay less than $ 20 for a monthly membership, while some come on a daily session which costs only $ 2 a day. The club is open from 9 am – 9 pm 7 days a week, and most of the trainees are private security guards

Click on the video and go inside “Mr. Olympia”:

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By FNC Producer Ghaleb Tawfiq

Almost 50 years ago, the legendary Duke Ellington performed in Baghdad and played his famous composition “Take the A Train”.

Last weekend, Alvin Atkinson and the Sound Merchants played the same composition to the delight of almost 400, mostly Iraqis, at the al Rasheed Hotel, in Baghdad. We didn’t want to miss the chance so we joined the crowd.

Invited by the US embassy, the NY Jazz Quartet were on a one week tour to entertain Iraqis, meeting with musicians and students in a gesture to strengthen cultural relations between the two nations. The crowd responded to the fine tunes with repeated applause

The show started with Iraqi & Arabic traditional music performed by Dejlah Oriental Band, an Iraqi Quartet, and then the American band took the stage and played a number of compositions, for more than an hour, including the “A Train”.

Alvin told us that he has heard about the history and heritage of Iraq’s music which he admires alot and he wanted to share American traditional music with his Iraqi counterparts, he thanked all Iraqis for accepting him and his Band hoping to return for a longer visit.

Listen to their tunes:

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Cameraman & editor:

Tom Streithorst

By FNC Producer Ghalib Tawfiq

Meet young Iraqi, Mohammad. He is a 23 year old Pharmacist from Baghdad.  His father founded this Pharmacy about 30 years ago and now he is retired,  so now Mohammad is running it. Mohammad believes that Iraq should be run by a Democratic political system without any loyalty to a certain religious sect or ethnic group, and that the younger generation should be educated this way, so their loyalty will be only for the country.  Hear from Mohammad himself below!