March 22, 2021

“I was always into sports, and that encouraged me to study sports in college. I started getting into cycling in 2011. The first thing I tried was going from Barzan to Soran town. Then, I expanded on my travel and went from Duhok to Soran, then Slemani, Halabja, Biyara, Tawela and Iran’s borders. I travel solo, and that’s a testimony of being confident and making decisions for yourself. The longest I have traveled was from Duhok to Istanbul, 1700 kilometers away and it took me 23 days. I had a GPS with me, and every cycler knows how important it is. My last travel was from Duhok to Basra, and it took me 18 days. Security situations weren’t ideal, but I took the chance and did it anyway. Traveling to Basra had taught me how the people their love Kurds and Kurdistan. I was wondering why they love Kurds so much, and it was because how Baath regime had all those bad things to Kurds and Shias. This is why they had so much love for me and Kurdistan”.