by SHASHANK BENGALI
Johanara surfs in Cox’s Bazar last year. When she’s not surfing, Johanara, now 11, helps her family make ends meet by selling water, chips and cigarettes on the beach, often working until dark PHOTO/Allison Joyce/Redux
Friends Aisha, 11, Sumi, 13, and Shoma Akthar, 14, are some of the girls surfing together in Cox’s Bazar PHOTO/Shashank Bengali/Los Angeles Times
The girls ply this endless stretch of beach every morning, weaving through flocks of tourists to sell snacks, the ocean breeze whipping the gossamer scarves of their traditional shalwar kameez.
They rarely went into the water. In their conservative world of southern Bangladesh, it was said, decent girls didn’t swim.
Three years ago, one of the girls noticed a lifeguard gliding across the waves on a surfboard. It seemed to her almost like magic. Shoma Akthar, the youngest of six sisters, did not lack confidence. When the surfer, Rashed Alam, came ashore, she told him, “I want to do that.”
“Meet me tomorrow morning,” Alam responded.
It was several weeks before Shoma worked up the courage. She knew her mother wouldn’t approve of anything that took her away from working on the beach.
“If I can’t make money, my mom yells,” Shoma said. “I’m scared of her.”
Surfing offered a perfect rebellion. She began stealing an hour or two late in the morning to get in the water. Within days, others followed.
For these eight girls ages 11 to 14, surfing has helped them reclaim a piece of their childhood. It is a sport that conjures up freedom, verve and sunlit horizons — attributes not usually associated with the life of a young girl in Bangladesh, an overwhelmingly Muslim country of 160 million with one of the world’s highest rates of child marriage.
Now they are a daily sight in the rolling gray waters: Alam, 26, and a gaggle of girls atop battered boards, sliding across the surf and defying customs as old as the Bay of Bengal.
“I was scared of the waves,” said Shoma, a chatty 14-year-old wearing waterproof lipstick, her hair tied in a ponytail. “But not anymore.”
The young surfers kept their new pastime a secret for weeks before telling their families.
“The girls’ parents want them to work,” Alam said. “We have to convince them that they can have a future outside the house.”
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