‘We were afraid of the ocean… Now we’re lifesavers!’
Meet the incredible 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’s unusual for women to swim. The boys would go to the pool, but never me and my sisters.
“The first time I actually went to the beach, I had the impression it would be scary, but it was beautiful. I put my feet in the water and it felt really 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 recalls.
“Our confidence grew after that programme 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 graduated as lifesavers, having learned to swim, mastered the rescue surfboards 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 togs 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.
“We won a silver medal,” Sahar says with a smile. “It was very exciting. My parents were so proud.”
A year on, 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 – this year, she’s studying medicine at university and hopes
to become a neurologist.
“But I’ll always stay involved with the surf club,” she says. “I want to encourage other girls that they can do it too.”