Hi Guys,

If you’ve arrived at Part 2 of our chat with Ishtar Azzawi, the founder of Baghdad Skate Girls, after listening to Part 1,  fabulous. We hope you enjoyed it! If not, we urge you to head to Part 1 of this episode to listen to the inspiring origin story of a skateboarding community exclusively for women in Iraq. 

This instalment dives into Ishtar’s professional sporting career in jiu-jitsu. Since starting the sport, after moving to the UAE in 2011, Ishtar has become a multi-national and international gold medallist competing under Commando Group UAE academy, and is part of the Iraqi National Team. Her recent and most recognised titles include World Pro Champion (April 2019) European Master Champion (May 2019) Grand Slam Champion (Jan 2019) and Asian Champion (2017).

Ishtar discusses what she has learnt from the sport that has made her the person she is today, and anecdotes from her time in the ring and off it. We also talk about the not-so-apparent connection between skateboarding and jiu-jitsu, which aren’t really at two ends of the sporting spectrum after all. 

To find Ishtar on Instagram:  @ishtar_azzawi

Baghdad Skate Girls can be followed on @baghdadskategirls

To know more about Ishtar’s efforts with Forsah, the NGO supporting Iraq’s future Olympians, visit https://www.forsah.org/

For more information about the UAE Jiu-Jitsu Federation, visit https://events.uaejjf.org/en

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Our wider support team for this episode includes Editor JJ Thompson and our Artwork is by the talented Alexandra Hickey of Studio Theodore. 

We hope you enjoy the episode! 

Dawn & Afshan