Sultans of the City: The Kurdish Eagles
In the northwestern corner of Iran, in the highlands of the Zagora mountain range, the Kurdish city of Saqqez straddles the banks of the river that bears its name. With a rich history that goes back to 7th millennium BC, it boasts a long tradition of great actors, musicians and poets. Its streets have known the hoof beats of invading Roman horses, the marching sandals of Assyrian armies and now the whirring buzz of urethane wheels.
The Kurdish Eagles are adding skateboarding to their city’s proud legacy and nothing, not beatdowns, blizzards or gnarly terrain can stop them. I recently spoke with Adib Sheikhy of the Eagles about organizing the team, skating in his city and participating in the Sultans of the City contest.
Hey Adib, would you start by introducing yourself and your team.
I’m Adib Sheikhy, I’m 17 years old and I’m the leader of the Kurdish Eagles. Kurdish Eagles consists of me, Zana Ashtiany (27 yo) and Diyar Rokhzady (15 yo).
Where are you guys from?
We are from Saqqez in Kurdistan of Iran, a small historical city with a cold weather but amazing nature.
How did you get into skateboarding?
With the start of the Corona virus and the closure of all sports clubs, I decided to start skating because I was no longer waiting for sports clubs to reopen and I started skateboarding on sidewalks and the streets and parks. We don’t have any skateparks or places like that to go to, so we find plazas and streetspots. At first I was the only skater in the whole of Kurdistan. It was tough and sometimes lonely because I had no coaches or friends who skated. After about 6 months, I met Zana. He’s an inline skater but he was very interested in learning skateboarding. So I helped him and from that day on we were always skating together. After about 9 months, we met Diyar. He had this beautiful skateboard but he couldn’t skate so we started helping him and from that day on we were all skating together in Saqqez.
Adib, Zana and Diyar
Were their skaters you looked up to and would watch?
I’m really interested in Nyjah Huston skating and he is a symbol of effort for us. I want to compete in the SLS ( street league skateboarding ) like Nyjah.
What’s it like skating in Saqqez? How are the locals?
Well we usually practice in the parks, but even there the ground condition is pretty bad. In fact we had to actually concrete parts of the ground to make them more skateable. Even in this situation, it can still be very difficult to skate here because of other people. Some of the people here hate skateboarders, probably because skateboarding is new to them and seems like some alien sport. Many times when we skate, people will block our way and try to prevent us from continuing. They’ll make fun of us and Sometimes they’ve even threatened us with a knife to try and get us to stop. Even the town skating commission doesn’t support us.
That sucks. It’s gotten better in the US with how people react to skateboarding but in the 80s and early 90s skateboarders were definitely looked at negatively. Do you have any local skateshops or places like that in your town ?
No, we haven’t got any skateshops in the whole of Kurdistan, so if we have to buy new decks or shoes we get them from the T-sixty skateshop or Curb skateshop both of which are in Tehran.
How did you get your first board?
I bought my first skateboard from an online show (Digikala). I asked my parents to give me a skateboard as a gift for Nowruz (Iranian New Year).
How did you first hear about the Sultans of the City Contest?
We heard about the contest form in T-sixty Skateshop’s Instagram stories and told ourselves that this is a good opportunity to show our scene and our skating. So we registered our team and since the Eagle is a symbol of freedom, strength, and effort in Kurdistan, we called ourselves the Kurdish Eagles.
Once you got started, how was the experience for your team?
Sultans of the City was really great but it was also really challenging for us given where we lived and the weather this time of year. See, after recording almost half of the challenges from the book we had to stop because of snowfall throughout Saqqez. To continue working on it we had to travel to Tehran (about 600 kilometers away). Once in Tehran we were then able to complete challenges in the Ab-o-atash skate park.
Wow you guys really put in the work. Looking back, was there a challenge you enjoyed more than the others?
We loved the longest ollie challenge over the decks. It took us about two weeks to film it because at first I could only ollie 9 decks but then got to the point where I was able to do 13.
That’s sick dude, I could do like two decks if I really tried. Sounds like it was quite an experience having to support each other and find ways to complete these challenges. It was more than just meeting up at the park and filming huh?
Totally. One of the most interesting stories I remember is from when we were recording the flat ground trick. We were skating in Saqqez and I was trying to land an fs 180 kickflip, when the skateboard was thrown up from under me and it hit me in the chest.
It hurt so much and I was done so we decided to call it a day. As we were returning home, skating in the street Diyar fell down and suddenly these three vendors who got angry about this incident started attacking us. They had knives and started hitting us with their fists. I got punched in the face which split the corner of my lip. We called the police and were at the police station until nightfall.
They started attacking you just because Diyar fell?
They said that when Diyar fell it frightened a woman in front of their shop and that upset them but that was just a lie, they just hated us.
That’s ridiculous.
It’s really unfortunate.
Bonus Challenge: How many Chickens can you fit on a board
I cracked a rib skating two years ago and if hurt forever, how was your injury?
The next day I went to the doctor to get a chest x-ray because it still hurt so much. They noticed that one of my ribs was damaged and the doctor told me not to skate, but I couldn’t listen. I kept recording the challenges and thank god I feel better now.
Thanks for talking with me Adib, good luck to you guys. Any final words?
As difficult as it is to skate in Iran, it is almost impossible in Saqqez because of the lack of spots and attitudes of the people. But I love the impossible and no matter how difficult it is I will continue.
