The bodybuilding contest where you CAN’T show off your muscles: Teenager wins first-ever women’s championship in Bangladesh – but most of her muscles were covered up to avoid offending Muslims

• Awhona Rahman, 19, crowned Bangladesh’s first female bodybuilding champion 
• Student said she hopes to inspire other women to take up sport with her victory 
• Rahman competed in a crop top and leggings rather than the traditional bikini 
• Organisers said outfit was chosen to conform with ‘religious and social culture’

Bangladesh’s first women’s bodybuilding championship was won by a 19-year-old student in a contest where most of her muscle was covered up to prevent controversy in the Muslim-majority nation.

While skimpy bikinis are the norm at international body-building contests, Awhona Rahman and her 29 rivals kept their brawn under wraps in front of the crowd of hundreds.

Rahman and the other competitors struck poses on stage wearing tight leggings and body-hugging outfits during the three-day event that finished on Sunday and was held in the capital Dhaka.

Awhona Rahman, 19, (centre), was crowned Bangladesh’s first female bodybuilding champion on Sunday after competing in a crop top and leggings in a sport where bikinis are the norm

‘I am really happy, I really worked hard for this,’ Rahman told AFP.

‘It never entered my mind that someone might criticise me for showing my body. My brother, who runs a fitness centre, has always encouraged me,’ she added.

‘We were told there would be proper dress code and the outfit provided was perfect from a Bangladeshi perspective.’

Bangladesh Bodybuilding Federation general secretary Nazrul Islam said there had been a huge response to the landmark women’s competition which aimed to encourage health and fitness.

‘We were very careful about the dress code because of our religious and social culture. We selected long sleeve crop tops and leggings for the girls,’ he added.

Islam predicted the competition would help create jobs for women in the growing number of gymnasiums in Bangladesh where women now have memberships.

Nearly 90 per cent of Bangladesh’s population is Muslim and women are making a growing impact in sport including cricket, football and archery.

Bangladesh hospital scraps plans to give donated breast milk to orphans after Muslim clerics said it was a violation of Islamic law 

A Bangladesh hospital has suspended plans to give donated breast milk to needy newborns after a backlash by Muslim clerics, who said the scheme was a violation of Islamic law.

The programme was to feed up to 500 orphans and infants of working mothers in the Muslim-majority country, which has one of the world’s highest rates of child malnutrition and stunted growth.

But religious leaders said that the plan could lead to breaches of Sharia law if two babies drank milk from the same mother and later married.

Bangladesh has cancelled plans to give donated breast milk to hundreds of malnourished orphans after scholars warned it could breach Sharia law (file image)

‘Their entire marriage and lineage would become illegal,’ said Gazi Ataur Rahman, a spokesman of the influential Islami Andolan Bangladesh political party.

The milk bank was slated to start this month in the capital Dhaka, but project coordinator Mojibur Rahman said it had been delayed indefinitely because of ‘widespread criticism’.

He added that the hospital had set up strict safeguards for the scheme.

‘We collect and preserve milk separately and rigorously record (donor) identities,’ he told AFP on Monday, a day after the milk bank’s suspension was announced.

Source: Read Full Article