Opening Boundaries helping women from Asian community to enjoy swimming

Women from the Asian community in the West Midlands are being given the opportunity to enjoy the many benefits of regular swimming thanks to a charity striving to break down cultural barriers.

Opening Boundaries campaigns globally to use the power of sport as a tool for peace, whilst raising the awareness of community cohesion, positive health and gender equality.

They stage four weekly women-only swim sessions at Wordsley Primary School and Crystal Leisure Centre in Stourbridge that regularly attract more than 80 participants of all ages and abilities – including three generations of one family.

The huge success of the swimming project, developed with the support of Swim England, was recently heralded on the national stage with a nomination at the prestigious Sporting Equals Awards – affirmation of its rise from humble origins.

Volunteer, Farah Ahmed, whose sister Halima created Opening Boundaries in 2015, explained: “The swim project came about after Covid and was the result of a conversation I had with a friend whilst out on a walk.

“She was keen to swim on a regular basis but wanted to do so in an environment that was specifically for Asian women.

“I told her I’d have a look to see if we could do anything about that through the charity and that’s where it all started.

“We spoke to a local school and recently linked up with a leisure centre to put on a session to gauge the interest of the local community.

“I was expecting that maybe 20 women would sign up and we would try to put on one session a week, but that was a massive under-estimate.

Enjoy freedom of being in water

“The demand was overwhelming to be honest. We didn’t advertise or post on social media – it was all down to word of mouth. I knew that news of our plans would spread fast through the Asian community, but I never expected the demand to be so high.

“I had to tell people to stop telling others because my phone was constantly pinging with people asking to be added to our list.

“I thought, OK, one session that would be great. In the end, I had 80 women a week going swimming with 30 others on a waiting list.

“We ended up with a session on a Tuesday, a session on a Wednesday and then two shorter 45-minute sessions on a Friday just to soak up the demand.”

Breaking down cultural barriers was key to the project’s success. “Some Muslim women dress conservatively and going swimming was always difficult for them as they don’t want to be seen,” Farah added.

“I’m body conscious and didn’t want to go to a leisure centre but we were able to put on sessions in the evening that catered specifically for their needs, with female lifeguards and swim tutors.

“The whole aim was to get women in the pool. Some of those who had attended had had bad experiences in the past and we wanted to give them a safe space in which they could either learn to swim or just enjoy the freedom of being in water.

“From a purely selfish point of view, it was good for me as it gave me the opportunity to learn to swim. I’m a mother of three children and on holidays it was always my husband who took the children into the water.

“They would ask me why I wasn’t going in with them but once I had arranged the swimming sessions there really was no excuse for me not to learn to swim.”

Opening Boundaries was shortlisted for the Swim England Aquatics Champion award almost a decade after Halima created the charity and set about proving that Asian women could make a living from sport.

Sport is a powerful tool

Farah continued: “I’m originally from Bradford, one of four sisters, and there was never any avenue for us to get into sport. It was never seen as a profession and a chance to climb up the ladder – our parents always just said focus on education.

“That’s what two of my sisters and I did and as soon as we finished education, we got jobs so we could help the family financially.

“Halima was the youngest sister, and she wanted to prove that she could make a living from sport. We persuaded our parents to give her the opportunity, which wasn’t easy believe me, and she hasn’t looked back since.

“There were so many barriers for her as a young Asian woman and she had to battle against the lack of education among the older generation around accessibility to sport, but she got there.”

Halima became the first Muslim women to gain a Level 2 certification in rugby as a coach and has also worked for the Yorkshire Sports Foundation, Sporting Equals, Badminton England and Street Games and she’s now an inclusion and diversity consultant.

Farah added: “Halima has proved so many people wrong by making a career for herself in sport and it was from there that Opening Boundaries was created.

“Sport is a powerful tool for bringing people from different backgrounds together and we were thrilled to be nominated for the Swim England Aquatic Champion award.

“We didn’t realise we had been nominated by ActiveBlackCountry until the invitation came to attend the ceremony in London and it was lovely to spend an evening with people and organisations working to improve sporting opportunities for ethnically diverse communities.”

Mike Hawkes, Swim England’s head of diversity and inclusion, said: “Opening Boundaries were richly deserving of their nomination for the Swim England Aquatics Champion award as, thanks to their work, women from the Asian community in the West Midlands are now able to enjoy regular swim sessions.

“We recognise the immense value of the work of Opening Boundaries and ActiveBlackCountry and look forward to seeing their swim project continue to grow and develop.”