Muslim woman surfs against the tide
HER name is Qudsia Mall. She is Muslim-Gujarati and a surf instructor.
My head conjures up images of a bleached blonde wearing a burka.
Maybe she’s not really Muslim, I think.
It’s a ridiculous thing to think but I can’t help myself.
The idea of what we think a Muslim woman should be is at times so ingrained, that finding out she enjoys a sport, just like anyone else, is almost shocking.
When she does arrive at Chateau Gateaux in Morningside, she looks like anyone else.
She wears a headscarf and is dressed rather regularly – in jeans and a top.
Look closely though and there are hints of a bohemian heart beating within.
Her hands are decorated with intricate henna.
The headscarf is bright green and the way she wears it, is somewhat reminiscent of a Rastafarian holding back her locks.
“It is kinda ridiculous…” she agrees, when I shared my thoughts.
“That we should even be having this conversation. It’s a sport. Why does it have anything to do with religion or gender? I’m Muslim. I’m Gujarati. I’m feminine. But that doesn’t mean I’m not also a bad-ass! I’m not here to live my life according to anyone else’s idea.”
She gives me the sort of look that says: “I dare you to disagree.”
But I am bowled over by her fierce conviction.
Mall, 34, is a divorced mother of two.
She is also a motivational speaker, who self-published a motivational memoir, From
Horns to Wings (2016). And she is a passionate surfer, who regularly teaches women, mostly Muslim, to surf.
I ask her what she was like as child and she says with a quick smile: “I’m still a kid! I’ve always been a rebel, always swum against the tide.” Mall recalls days spent at her mother’s shop on North Beach as a child.
“I would watch the surfers and thought how cool it looked. I told my parents I really want to do that and my mother said, ‘oh my god, you are crazy’. But my dad approached things a little differently. He said sure.”
A German tourist walking by asked if he could drop his surfboard off as he was travelling and couldn’t take it with him. “It was serendipitous.” After backpacking in Europe post university, she married in London and lived abroad for 14 years.
Mall returned to Durban last March after her marriage ended, and couldn’t wait to surf again.
“I put out a few messages on Muslim social groups. I was really just looking for company.”
What she didn’t anticipate was how many people were interested.
So what stopped them from trying?
“Most of them were afraid to do it alone, of what people would say. Of being ostracised. So I saw this as an opportunity to get people to take a chance and try something new, despite their fears. I could do that for them. I could make them brave.”
So what exactly is so shocking about her surfing?
Is it because surfing seems to be a white, male-dominated sport, or is it because as a Muslim woman she shouldn’t be wearing swimwear?
“Its funny because if you were to cover up and wear a full hijab to go surfing, it’s not very practical and you’d get soaked and your clothes would be more revealing. I wear a wet suit and a skirt over it. It’s modest, respectful but also practical. So what exactly is the problem?”
The women Mall teaches range in age from 7 to 40, and more than 30 have joined for a lesson.
I ask who she gets the most stares from.
Is it other races or is it from the Muslim community themselves? “Other Muslims,” she says. “Certain ways of thinking are hard to let go of. People think you shouldn’t do certain things because they don’t. But when you consider there’s actually nothing wrong with what we do, then you have to question the line of thinking.” Perhaps the tide is turning. In January, the KZN Film Commission officially green lit the production of a film to be shot in Durban called Deep End.
Written by local producer Dr Eubulus Timothy, the film tells the story of Sunitha, a Gujarati girl, who loves to surf.
Faced with cultural stereotypes, her father wants her to stop.
Instead, he sees the struggles she faces and sees her in a new light.
I show a clipping of a news report about the film to Mall, who reads it in near disbelief.
Timothy joins us for the tail end of the meeting.
I ask him what inspired the story.
“I remember reading about a Gujarati woman who swam for South Africa some time ago. And the memory of her stayed with me, but really, this is a story more about the relationship between a father and a daughter. Surfing was just a way to show that. I also think there are some things Indians just don’t do. But it’s a different world and things are changing.”
I look at Mall and wonder what it must be like for her, to have gone against the grain and fought stigma to do something she believed in.
And then to meet the man who wrote a movie that could very well be about her life.
“This story resonates deeply within me and the battle I’ve been fighting all my life. I’ve been trying to enable women of colour to surf. Getting them out of their comfort zones and breaking cultural norms, is what I want to keep doing.”
*For casting queries, e-mail DeepEndMovie@gmail.com.
Interested in Surfing? Look for Mall’s company, Nomadic Adventures.