When Roya Karimi steps onto a bodybuilding stage, she looks every inch the professional athlete — her skin bronzed, muscles sculpted, and her crystal-studded bikini shimmering under the lights. But behind the confidence and the trophies is a story that defies everything she was told her life would be.
Fifteen years ago, Roya was a teenage mother and child bride in Afghanistan.
Today, at 30, she’s one of Europe’s rising bodybuilding stars — and she’s doing it for the millions of Afghan women who never got the same chance to chase their dreams.
Now based in Norway, Roya has just competed at the IFBB Pro World Championships, placing third in the Women’s Wellness Open — a milestone that capped off an extraordinary two-year rise from nurse to professional athlete.
But for Roya, every moment on stage is more than just competition. It’s rebellion.
“I’m not going to the world championship just to compete,” she wrote to her followers before the event. “I’m going to show what happens when a woman decides to fight for her own life by being completely, unapologetically herself. Every step I take onto that stage is a reminder that I didn’t come from ease — I came from struggle. I came from a place where people said ‘you can’t,’ and I turned it into ‘watch me.’”
Escaping The Life She Never Chose
Roya was born in Afghanistan, where women’s freedoms were restricted long before the Taliban’s most recent takeover. By the age of 15, she was married off and had a son — her path seemingly decided for her. But at 18, in 2011, she made a life-altering decision. She fled Afghanistan with her mother and child, leaving behind her husband and everything she’d known, searching for a life where she could finally make her own choices.
She found refuge in Norway, where she learned a new language, earned her education, and began working as a nurse in Oslo. It was there that she started going to the gym — at first, to build strength and relieve stress. Then, as she put it, to “rebuild her identity.”
“Every time I go to the gym, I remember that there was a time in Afghanistan when I wasn’t even allowed to exercise freely,” Roya told BBC News Afghan.
Breaking Boundaries — And Finding Strength
The gym became her sanctuary. It was also where she met her second husband, fellow Afghan bodybuilder Kamal Jalaluddin. With his support, Roya took her training to a professional level, stepping on stage for the first time just 18 months ago.
“Before I met Kamal, I was doing sports, but not at a professional level,” she explained. “His support gave me the courage to choose a competitive and taboo-breaking path. I believe that if a man stands by a woman, amazing things can happen.”
That partnership helped her reach heights neither of them could have imagined. Earlier this year, she won gold at both the Stoperiet Open and the Norway Classic — victories that earned her a place at the European Championships and, eventually, the World Championships in Barcelona.
But her path hasn’t been easy.
Fighting Back Against Hate
As Roya’s success has grown, so has the backlash. Her stage appearances — featuring competition bikinis, flowing hair and glamorous make-up — have drawn furious criticism online, particularly from conservative voices in Afghanistan, BBC News reports.
Her social media posts have been flooded with insults and even death threats. But Roya refuses to be intimidated.
“People only see my appearance and my bikini,” she said. “But behind this appearance, there are years of suffering, effort and perseverance. These successes have not come easily.”
She says bodybuilding isn’t just about aesthetics — it’s a symbol of resistance. Through her posts, Roya speaks directly to Afghan women who are now banned from education beyond the age of 12, prohibited from most jobs, and forbidden from travelling without a male chaperone.
“I was lucky to be able to get out of that situation, but many women still don’t have their most basic human rights,” she said. “It’s really sad and heartbreaking.
Competing For Something Bigger
Roya says she doesn’t just compete for medals — she competes for meaning. Her biggest motivation comes from the women she left behind.
“On the world stage I stand free, but I dedicate this top-three victory to the Afghan women who are denied that freedom,” she wrote after the Barcelona event. “You are my power, and yet my spirit stands beside every Afghan woman whose wings are restricted. Your strength carried me here — this victory is yours.”
That sense of purpose drives her to push through the long training sessions, the criticism, and the constant pressure of being a public figure from a country where her profession would be considered unthinkable.
For her husband Kamal, watching Roya compete is the realisation of a shared dream. “Seeing Roya on stage was the fulfilment of a dream we built together,” he said proudly.
And for Roya, every lift, every pose, every gold medal has the same message: that women can write their own stories, even when the world tells them not to.
“I feel mentally strong and fully ready to give my all,” she said before the championships. “I’m hoping to make history by setting this record in the name of Afghan girls and women — for the very first time.”
From fleeing as a teenage mother to standing under the spotlights of the world’s biggest bodybuilding stage, Roya Karimi isn’t just building muscle — she’s building a legacy.
Featured image credit: Instagram/r0ya.ka
