Wounded in bombing, Iraq girl now rising table tennis star

A roadside bomb ripped into Nejla's family car in Baquba in Iraq when she was just three years old, taking much of her right leg, part of her left and her right forearm.

Twelve-year-old bomb victim Nejla Imad says table tennis has helped her regain confidence after the blast, and she had won several medals in local competitions before being asked to join the country’s under-16 Paralympic team for training in Baghdad. Sabah Arar /AFPShow less

Baquba, Iraq // Nejla Imad holds a table tennis ball against her bat with her thumb, flicks it into the air and sends it bouncing over the net.

She does all this with her left hand while sitting in a wheelchair – like tens of thousands of Iraqis, the 12-year-old is a victim of the bomb attacks that have terrorised the country for well over a decade.

A roadside bomb ripped into her family’s car in Baquba, a city north-east of Baghdad, when she was just three years old, taking much of her right leg, part of her left and her right forearm.

Despite these injuries, she took up table tennis when she was four and is now a rising Paralympic star.

“Table tennis ... has begun to change my life for the better,” said Nejla, wearing a green jersey with her country’s flag on the front and “Iraq” written across the back.

“My self-confidence is increasing day after day.”

The kindness she has been shown has also helped her deal with the pain of her injuries.

“I see the people around me show sympathy to me, and their readiness to help me, especially when I am outside the house, and this is something important that greatly eased the physical and psychological pain after I became handicapped,” she said.

Nejla trains in Baquba three times a week and travels to Baghdad twice a week to practise with the national under-16 Paralympic team.

“We are proud of Nejla and her teammates,” said Samir Al Kurdi, head of the Iraqi table tennis federation for the disabled.

In Baquba, she practises with four other girls – one who was partially paralysed by a mortar round and three who were disabled from birth – at a sports centre with pictures of table tennis stars on the walls.

Her coach in Baquba, Hossam Hussein, said Nejla won medals in several local competitions, drawing the attention of the national Paralympic committee, which invited her to join the Iraqi under-16 team.

“Nejla is one of the most skilled players on the table tennis team. She has great skills and great confidence in herself,” he said, predicting a bright future for her.

Last year, Nejla placed second in the Iraqi championships for disabled players under age 16, and also won silver at the Arab championships the same year.

However, she will not feature at this year’s Paralympics, said Jassem Katib Mezal, the coach of the national team.

Nejla said she remained hopeful of taking part in the event in future.

She lives in a small house on the outskirts of Baquba with her four sisters and two brothers, and is continuing her studies alongside her table-tennis training.

Her mother said the many trips to Baghdad – about 60 kilometres of checkpoints and traffic jams away – were tiring, and the 100,000 Iraqi dinars (Dh332) Nejla received each month for transport did not cover the expense.

“But I feel her happiness and I see her practising the sport, and this reduces all my troubles,” she said.

Table tennis is a source of both motivation and pride, said Nejla.

“Practising the sport gives me a lot of mental motivation, and I have begun to feel proud.”

* Agence France-Presse