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The Shame Game
Semret Russom’s fitness journey began in 2013 when she decided to train for her first bikini show, and she quickly fell in love with the sport. “I enjoyed the strict discipline and the challenge to my willpower,” Russom says. When she finally walked onstage in her bikini, she was proud — but also ashamed.
Russom comes from Eritrea, a small country in East Africa where female modesty is prized — and expected. “Women don’t go to the gym, and we don’t have muscle,” she says. And although Russom moved to California when she was 13, she still feels deeply connected to East Africa and the culture that shaped who she is today — hence the reason why she frequently fights feelings of indignity when in public wearing an itsy-bitsy bikini.
Despite criticism from people in Eritrea,…
