‘We were afraid of the ocean… now we’re lifesavers!’
Meet Australia’s first all-afghan, all-female lifesaving team
The water filled her nose and mouth as Sahar Ehsani flailed about, trying to remember what her instructors had told her about kicking her legs and moving her arms.
“It was so difficult,” Sahar, now 18, tells Woman’s Day. “I’d been doing swimming classes for a year, but I was getting discouraged. I couldn’t do it and at one point I wanted to give up.”
Sahar, who was born in Afghanistan, had fled from Pakistan to Melbourne in 2018.
There, she and her family were faced with a very different kind of life. “It was too dangerous to go to the beach in Pakistan,” she says. “And in Muslim culture it is unusual for women to swim there. The boys would go to the pool but never me and my sisters.
“The first time I went to the beach in Australia I had the impression it would be scary, but it was beautiful.
I put my feet in the water, and it felt amazing.”
At school, Sahar and her friends were taken to the pool and taught the basics. “We had to wear our big skirts and scarves, which were weird and awkward in the water, but it was still fun,” she says.
“Our confidence grew after that program and then we had a beach excursion with Life Saving Victoria. When they offered us swimming classes and said we could become lifesavers I signed up with a group of friends.”
It was a struggle and at times they wanted to quit but the instructors kept the girls motivated and in 2020 they were graduating as lifesavers, having learned to swim, mastered the rescue boards and been drilled in first aid.
“I felt so proud. It was the feeling of being beneficial and giving back,” says Sahar. “When we were celebrating, someone took a video of us that went on Facebook. We all had our normal clothes and hijabs on and a burqini designer saw it. She wanted to help.”
‘We won a silver medal… My parents were so proud’
The next time the girls were on patrol at their local beach, Bonbeach, they had new burqinis courtesy of Aheda Zanetti, who developed the Muslim-friendly swimwear to allow women to swim comfortably and safely.
KICKING GOALS
It was a game changer for Sahar and her friends. Brimming with confidence and now dressed in suitable beachwear, they decided to enter a lifesaving competition.
COVID put the kibosh on their 2020 hopes but last March, Sahar and five other
Afghan-muslim girls competed at the 2021 Surf Life Saving Championships in Lorne.
“We won a silver medal,” Sahar says with a smile. “It was very exciting. My parents were so proud.”
A year on and Sahar remains a dedicated member of the Bonbeach lifesaving team with plans to complete further qualifications. “It’s so important to be able to swim. We are surrounded by water and it’s a skill that can save your own life as well as other people’s.”
Saving lives is clearly a passion Sahar has, in and out of the water, because this year she’s off to study medicine at university, with hopes of becoming a neurologist. “I’ll always stay involved with the surf club,” she says. “I want to encourage other girls that they can do it, too.”