Shafaq News-Baghdad
Hadeel SaadKazem did not walk into a garage intending to become a mechanic. She walked inbecause her car kept breaking down, and nobody around her could explain why.
That chancevisit to a specialized workshop, she told Shafaq News, became the turning point."I found a completely different environment that sparked my interest andpushed me to go deeper into this field." What started as frustration witha malfunctioning vehicle became a full professional pivot, one that placed heramong a handful of Iraqi women to carve a path in automotive maintenance, aspace almost entirely occupied by men.
The road tothat garage was not straight. Returning to Iraq in 2018 after years in Syria,Hadeel found her secondary school certificate rejected by Baghdad authorities,the institution where she had studied was not recognized by the Ministry ofEducation, and she was told to repeat earlier academic stages. She turnedinstead to acting, working in theater and television between 2018 and 2020,then moving into television drama with director Ali Fadel in 2021, a career shecontinues today with Ramadan productions.
Digital contentfollowed, food, then general topics, before cars took over entirely.
She trainedunder specialists Mundher al-Saqr and Ayman Calibra, and learned disassemblyand maintenance from Ali Saeed. Today, she changes batteries and oil, diagnosesfaults using electronic scanning devices, handles electrical problems, anddismantles wire harnesses. The Check Engine warning light, she said, is thefault she encounters most often.
Many clientsstill hesitate to hand their vehicle to a woman, and the sight of a womaninside a repair workshop unsettles a portion of Iraqi society. Her response,she said, is not an argument; it is results. Male friends now consult herregularly, and she has resolved several faults for them directly.
Her goal is agarage run by and for women, a space where female drivers can have their carsserviced without depending on a father, husband, or relative to make the tripto an industrial area. "My biggest dream is to open a garage that giveswomen a comfortable and safe environment to get maintenance services withoutneeding to rely on anyone," she said. The project, she was careful to add,is not closed to men.
Between thestage, the screen, and the workshop floor, Hadeel is building a professionallife that refuses the lines traditionally drawn around women in technical workin Iraq.