World | Afghanistan

The easy road to respect

Afghan authorities have banned steroids in bodybuilding but many continue its use as a short-cut to the Mr Afghanistan title

  • By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times
  • Published: 00:00 June 3, 2011
  • Weekend Review

Hamed Allah Sharzai
  • Image Credit: Los Angeles Times
  • Hamed Allah Sharzai, winner of last year’s Mr Afghanistan title, in front of his own life-size photo in Kabul’s Iron Men Gym

Mr Afghanistan is doing his best not to break the leg press as he flexes his toned calves, pumping away under the fluorescent lights of Iron Men Gym. It is a small basement facility in a strip mall off one of the city's many dirt alleys.

Iron Men is among about 200 gyms that have sprouted in the capital since the Taliban government, which allowed bodybuilding to re-emerge as one of the country's favourite pastimes. Along with the proliferation of gyms has come an increase in anabolic steroid use among bodybuilders.

Afghan authorities say they have struggled to combat doping but, unlike in the United States, the drugs are not considered controlled substances here. More than 1,000 gyms have opened nationwide, using billboard advertising that feature shirtless, spray-tanned, wannabe Arnold Schwarzeneggers and Jean-Claude van Dammes posing for passing crowds. But Hamed Allah Sharzai is no wannabe.

Last year he won the lightweight Mr Afghanistan title. And the year before. And the year before that. Recently, he was determined to win this year's heavyweight title at the annual three-day competition at Kabul's Olympic Stadium. Under the Taliban, he and other members of the national bodybuilding team were allowed to train but forbidden to shave, tan or don the trademark skimpy briefs. Taliban fighters would visit his gym and beat him for not praying enough, he said.

Now 36, Sharzai is a trainer and a newlywed, with a baby due soon. He still manages to work out twice, sometimes three times a day. "To be Mr Afghanistan," he says, rising from the weight machine to grab free weights for some lunges, "is my only goal." The title does not come with endorsements, cash or any other valuable prizes. Mr Afghanistan gets a plastic trophy, a tracksuit with the Afghan flag on the front and a spot on the national bodybuilding team.

"If there was a prize, people would probably try to kill each other for it," quips Noor Al Huda Sherzad, a former bodybuilding champion who owns the gym. The crowd of hard bodies surrounding his desk guffaws. Among them is Ahmad Shekib, 36, a finance expert at an Australian consulting firm, whose thick neck strains his dress shirt. Shekib is also competing for the Mr Afghanistan title. He has two young sons, and his wife sometimes complains that he spends too much time at the gym instead of helping around the house. "My answer is, it's better than if I smoke or use drugs," he says.

Sold alongside proteins

Both Shekib and Sharzai say they do not use steroids, which are banned by the Afghanistan Bodybuilding Federation and international bodybuilding groups. But others do. Steroids were on sale recently at Bush Bazaar, a maze of stalls named after President George W. Bush, because merchants hawk US military surplus and other American ware, including bodybuilding vitamins, shakes and powders with names such as Mega Mass and Great Gainer.

Among the vendors was Zalmai, 23, who keeps steroid vials and tablets stashed on a shelf in his shop behind bottles of "power capsules". Steroids for sale include systanol, testoviron and deca durabolin. He also sells human chorionic gonadotropin, or HCG, a hormone used to enhance the effect of steroids. Each box of steroids sells for about $5 (Dh18), he said. The Health Ministry inspector who visits regularly does not ask about the steroids — he mainly checks to make sure the protein powders have not expired. Steroids are not illegal, so Zalmai — an aspiring bodybuilder himself — has never had a problem. "These are only for professionals," he said, adding that he makes those new to the sport wait four months before selling them steroids.

"The people who don't know how to use it are damaging their bodies," he said. It was rumoured that steroids contributed to the death of last year's Mr Afghanistan heavyweight title winner. Arif Sakhi, 26, died after suffering liver and kidney failure, typical side-effects of longtime steroid abuse. Ustaad Bawar Hotak, the head of the Afghanistan Bodybuilding Federation, and others in the Afghan bodybuilding community deny that Sakhi was doping. In a country rife with corruption and organised crime, where conspiracy theories abound, they insist he was killed by his enemies.

"It wasn't about using drugs," Sherzad says. "He just had problems with people who poisoned him." But both Sherzad and Hotak concede that doping is common among Afghan bodybuilding amateurs and professionals, and that more could be done to expand testing at professional competitions. "We don't have the systems to do the doping tests here, because it's expensive," Hotak says, and the country does not have specialised laboratories to handle testing. Recently, Afghanistan's National Olympic Committee joined the World Anti-Doping Agency, which has promised drug-testing equipment and funding in coming months, according to the committee's president, Lieutenant General Mohammad Taher Aghbar.

Policy of zero tolerance

In April, Aghbar created a team of investigators who inspect Kabul's gyms, looking for steroids. During the next few months, they will report which gyms have the most people using steroids, he says, and his office plans to mount an educational campaign in Kabul and other provinces geared towards zero tolerance. There are other incentives besides testing for bodybuilders to stay healthy and drug-free, the crowd at Iron Men Gym said. The Mr Afghanistan title comes with valuable bragging rights for those who train hard and wish to share their insights. "You receive so much media coverage, you become really well known and you can have a gym, be a trainer," Sherzad says. "People will know you in the street and you will be respected."

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