‘Stop using women’s bodies as battlegrounds’

Hiral Sheth, general secretary, Indian Body Builders Federation

Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh, had hosted the 13th Mr Junior Bodybuilding Competition, which turned into a slug fest between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The controversy has been simmering since the March 4 and 5 contest held at the Vidhayak Sabhagrah. The organising committee included the city's BJP mayor Prahlad Patel, while the patron was legislator Chaitanya Kashyap.

A row erupted as women bodybuilders in bikinis, as that is the attire women bodybuilders have to wear, posed on stage while there was an image of Lord Hanuman in the background. Clips went viral on social media. The Congress carried out a ‘purification' at the site as they claimed bodybuilders in bikinis posing in front of the Lord's image was an insult to Hindu dharma and disrespectful to Lord Bajrangbali. The BJP hit back stating that Congress has a dirty mindset and cannot bear to see women compete in sport.

Contest

Mumbai's Hiral Sheth, general secretary of the Indian Body Builders Federation (IBBF), the sport's umbrella body, was present in MP, as the controversy threw a long shadow over the contest. Sheth said from the IBBF headquarters in Parel, "This was an official competition called the 13th Men's Junior/Masters /Divyang/ Sr. Women's Bodybuilding and 4th Junior Women's / Ladies Women's Sports Model Physique National Championship 2023. Athletes, both men and women came from Nagaland, Assam, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Kerala, Punjab, and Vidarbha."

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Intentional

Sheth explained that the Ratlam organisers had done the entire set up, including the stage. She added, "A statue of Lord Hanuman was placed in the right-hand corner of the stage. Some of the photography and videos were allegedly intentionally done to show that the women athletes were posing directly in front of Lord Hanuman's statue. Lord Hanuman is worshipped by the entire body building/ fitness fraternity and in all gymnasiums through India by men and women as He is the God of strength."

Attire

This controversy sparked, Sheth said, after a "defamatory and abusive post about the women athletes in social media. The women athletes were called ‘do takke ki aurat' in the post. The IBBF is the affiliated unit of World Bodybuilding and Physique Sports Federation (WBPF) and hence we have adopted the categories led by the WBPF. The attire rules, regulations and judging criteria is guided by the WBPF. It is mandatory for the women to wear bikinis as this is in the guidelines."

Numbers

Going beyond this, Sheth took a wide-angle lens to look at what controversies like these mean for women's sport. She stated, "A decade ago, it was difficult for the IBBF to encourage women athletes to participate, and women's participation even now, is much lower compared to men. Having said that, many of our athletes have won medals in the World and Asian Championships and more athletes are taking this up as a sport."

International

It is time women's bodies and attire, whether in sport or elsewhere stop becoming ground for pitched political battles. "Instead," said the general secretary, "Parties should help us organise more events and promote the sport across India. This incident actually shows double standards by a few people for cheap publicity and is very disheartening. Women athletes are equal when it comes to agency in what they have to wear while competing. We are taking strides but bodybuilding, traditionally, is male-dominated and it takes time, changing mindsets and more competition to see the number of women increase. We want parties to focus on that. The IBBF has elected me, a woman, in a senior administration post, and this is also an indication of how the federation is encouraging women into the sport."

In the end she stated, "when we have these political clashes, they divert from what should be the focus, finishing the bodybuilding season which runs till April and then, looking at stellar performances in a packed international calendar which has the World Championships in Seoul, South Korea, in November this year."

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Day in March when bodybuilding competition began