My name is Bzhwen Tahir and I am a final-year student in the department of Computer Engineering,Tishk International University, Ranked as First Student with the Total GPA of 3.8. an IT engineer for an oil and gas engineering company and playmaker for the Iraqi national handball team and a local club.
I was born and raised in Kirkuk until the age of 5 but was forced to leave family and friends behind due to the complicated economic and social situation in the country at the time. Late 2000, I became a refugee in Norway, . My 14-year long stay in Norway gave me the opportunity to grow up with both Eastern and Western traditional and cultural values.
Three years ago, in 2014, I once again had to leave everything behind in Norway and start a new life in Erbil. Despite a difficult start, Erbil has given me some great opportunities and privileges I will always be grateful for.
I have always been passionate about sports, especially ball games. Football was the greatest part of my childhood, but for some reason, I never had the chance to pursue it professionally, it was always just for fun. My passion for handball developed at the age of 10 when a friend of mine introduced me to “Runar” handball team.
I started with no previous experience and was mostly just placed in random positions that were empty. During official games, I spent most of the time on the bench with only 5 minute play time. For a long time I had no self-confidence in the sport, and because of this, I was on the verge of quitting handball several times. However, I managed to stay patient and due to my active background I was able to steadily, after a long time with disciplined training, work my way up to take the most central position in the team, the playmaker position.
My time in “Runar” as a junior handball player lasted for around 4 years with 2-4 games every month, several cups, championships and trips to other cities. I faced some obstacles and had to quit after these 4 years. At the time I thought my time in handball was finished for good, never believing I would get back to it and for sure not as an Iraqi national player.
Summer 2016, based on encouragement from a department lecturer, I tracked down the local handball team of Erbil Women’s Club after a 7 year leave from the game, and immediately became the playmaker for the team. Despite a horrible economic situation for the club, with no dedicated halls, lack of transportation and a minimal number of official games, we traveled to Turkey and Bulgaria last spring and still managed to get satisfactory results.
12 years after I first started with handball for a Norwegian club and one year after I started again with a Kurdish club, I was invited to try out for the Iraqi national team this fall. After several days under observation of the coach with different strength and conditioning tests in Baghdad, I was granted the title of playmaker for the Iraqi national team by the Iraqi Handball Federation. The West Asian Handball Championship will be held in Bahrain sometime in May 2018.
