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The break of dawn brings a stream of young girls riding the waves of the Cox Bazar beach. In this coastal town in Bangladesh, Johanara, Aisha, Shumi, Rifa, Shoma, Shobe Majaraz, Mayasha and Nargis spend their days hawking water, snacks and hand-made jewellery up and down the beach, and work late into the night to earn whatever little they can to support their respective families. Initially they would very rarely go into the ocean because in their conservative and Islamic society it was believed that ‘good girls don’t swim.’ But that all changed about three years ago when one of the girls noticed a lifeguard effortlessly gliding through breaking waves; it looked magical. She approached the surfer, Rashed Alam, as he came back to shore proclaiming that she too wanted to do what he just did, he responded asking her to return the next morning; this is how Shoma Akhtar started surfing.
Rashed Alam and his wife, Venessa Rude, took these eight girls under their wing. Aged 11 to 14, these girls are all born into poverty, working their way through life up till the time for marriage approaches. For them, surfing is an expression of freedom, a reclaiming of a lost childhood in one of the world’s poorest nations with little opportunities available for girls. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, Alam began training Shoba and in time, more girls joined in despite fear of their parents’ reactions. Seeking for their approval Alam visited the girls homes to convince their parents that surfing was not a bad thing. “The girls’ parents want them to work,” Alam said to the LA Times. “We had to convince them that they can have a future outside the house.” Finally spilling the surfing-secret to their parents, none of whom reacted very well to the news, gossip about the girls’ ‘inappropriate behaviour’ soon spread, some were even harassed on the streets, but it didn’t deter them. “Men assume they’re coming to the beach to do bad stuff,” said Venessa, “no one is used to seeing confident girls like this.”
Photo-journalist Allison Joyce met the group in Bangladesh when she was photographing the Surf Club for an assignment for Getty Images back in 2013, and she was captivated. “They have dreams now, and normally girls don’t have these kinds of dreams, says Joyce speaking to National Geographic. “They say, ‘I want to be a lifeguard,’ or ‘I want to be a professional surfer.’ Sumi wants to be a doctor.” Photographing the girls for a series, Joyce even set up a crowdfunding project online to support the girls and their families so they can carry on surfing without the economic pressure to work.
“My life before was making jewellery at home, work, sleep, making jewellery, work, sleep,” said 14-year-old Mayasha. “When I started surfing, I began thinking about my dreams..Now I think there are lots of things I want to do.” Life for a young girl in Bangladesh is set in a straightforward path of work followed by domesticity after marriage, but under the tutelage of Alam who’s training the girls in CPR and swimming in hopes of them getting jobs as lifeguards once they turn 16, his wife who gives the girls English lessons six days a week, and the work of Cox’s Bazar Lifesaving and Surf Club, the future looks bright for these girls.
Allison Joyce captures the girls paddling against the restrictive tide of patriarchy and poverty in her photo-story ‘The Bangladesh Surf Girls.’ Check it out on her website by clicking here.
Illustration by Taarika John.
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