Muslim lifesavers start training in burqinis : Melbourne Indymedia

For the December 9th planned march (on the Cronulla riot anniversary)
in Brunswick by women in "bikinis" to a Brunswick islamic centre....

Maybe the muslim women who wear "burqinis" can show up to discuss with the bikini wearing "non-Muslims"...
the two "fashion house" marketeers can then split the porfits for the day ?
It will be sorted by women in the end I reckon

see:

With its Anglo tradition threatening its future, Surf Life Saving Australia is riding a new wave.

Tide has turned as Muslim lifesavers start training in burqinis

see http://www.ahiida.com/

Danielle Teutsch
November 12, 2006

A GROUP of young Muslims from south-west Sydney had their first pool training session yesterday in their bid to become surf lifesavers.

Some of the girls wore the "burqini", a full-length swimming costume, and some of the boys were nervous about their prospects of swimming 400 metres in under nine minutes, one of the requirements of the bronze medallion.

But surf clubs eager to attract new members are helping to put the 22 aspiring lifesavers from Lakemba Sports Club through their paces.

"They are keen, and we are keen to get them on the beach," said Cronulla Surf Life Saving club chief instructor Tony Coffey. "Once you put on that red and yellow cap you are the same as anyone else."

They are taking part in a $600,000 federally funded program involving Surf Life Saving Australia, Sutherland Shire Council, and the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs called On the Same Wave.

The program aims to increase the ethnic membership of surf clubs, which are predominantly Anglo-Celtic, as well as promote harmony on the beach. The program was initiated in the wake of the Cronulla riots last year.

Dr Jamal Rifi, president of the Lakemba Sports Club, said all the participants were enthusiastic. The youngest one is 14, and they come from Lebanese, Egyptian and Libyan backgrounds.

"Hopefully the end result is for all of them to volunteer their time for beach patrol this coming summer," Dr Rifi said.

"This will send a message to young people in south-west Sydney that if these people can do it, so can they."

Walid Haddad, from Bankstown, was at the Roselands Aquatic Centre yesterday to support his son, Abdul, who is one of the trainee lifesavers.

"I want him to be part of Australian life," Mr Haddad said.

"I would have loved to do this myself."
Source: The Sun-Herald

. . . .

MELITA Khawly's red and yellow lifesaver cap can barely contain her mass of thick, dark curls. Khawly, who has a Lebanese background, doesn't drink beer, is a vegetarian and has a penchant for stylish bikinis - especially frilly pink ones.

She does not exactly fit the bronzed Aussie lifesaver image exported to the world. Neither does Ben Nguyen, a lifesaver of Vietnamese background, who barely knew how to swim when he was growing up. But in many ways, they represent the future of Surf Life Saving Australia.

Next year is the movement's 100th, but despite the wave of multiculturalism that has washed over Australia since surf lifesaving began, it remains resolutely Anglo, an anachronistic bastion of blue eyes, freckles and blond hair.

Surf Life Saving Australia has been aware for some time that it is effectively a monoculture, with a few trailblazing exceptions such as Khawly and Nguyen (pictured above).

In 2000, the organisation commissioned a report, Sound The Siren, which confirmed what its members already knew anecdotally: that among the Smiths, Bakers and Joneses, the Khans or Trans were few and far between. The report found 86 per cent of surf club members surveyed had at least one parent born in Australia, and most lived close to the beach.

Whereas this iconic image has helped sell Australia, it has become the greatest threat to the organisation's future, says SLSA's national development manager Chris Giles.

"With the growing level of multiculturalism, we risk becoming irrelevant," he says.

The need to increase diversity among its membership became even more pressing after last year's Cronulla riots.

Though the details of what happened when a fight broke out between lifesavers and Arabic youths at Cronulla beach have been disputed, the symbolism was clear: Anglo Australians were enraged at the perceived attack on one of "their" cultural icons, the lifesaver, and at what they saw as encroachment on "their" territory.

It showed that further clashes were inevitable unless the two camps resolved their differences.

This summer, Surf Life Saving Australia kicks off a $600,000 national program funded by the Federal Government called On The Same Wave, a partnership with Sutherland Shire Council and the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs.

The pilot program will directly target Muslim communities and schools in Sydney's south and south-west but also involve Chinese, Lebanese Christian and African ethnic groups.

It's an ambitious undertaking, with the aim of teaching young people of ethnic backgrounds surf skills such as spotting rips and basic first aid so that they can potentially become lifesavers. The broader aim is to encourage the idea that the beach is there for all to share.

In one of the first initiatives, 22 members of Lakemba Sports Club held their inaugural pool training session for their bronze medallion yesterday, the first step to becoming lifesavers.

Club president Jamal Rifi says even if less than half of them join a surf club, it will still be a success.

"It's the process that's important," he says. "This is uncharted territory for us ... I had always assumed the clubs were a closed shop area, until I came in touch with the people."

But why have the clubs been an Anglo stronghold for so long? There have certainly never been any official rules that bar members of any ethnic background, says Newcastle University academic Nancy Cushing, a contributing author to the recently published book Between The Flags: One Hundred Summers Of Australian Surf Lifesaving (UNSW Press).

But the way the movement was organised, in the British military tradition, it was simply not appealing to migrants, Cushing says.

"They didn't feel welcomed," she adds.

Even when post-war immigration was starting to transform society, the surf clubs remained staunchly conservative. Feminists saw them as macho dens where hard drinking and larrikin exploits were all part of male bonding.

It was not until 1980 that women were allowed to become full club members, and then only after overcoming resistance from men who fought to keep the status quo.

The widespread acceptance of female lifesavers - who now make up more than 40 per cent of club members - has shown that the movement can embrace change, and smoothed out some of the rough edges.

Khawly, a child of immigrant Lebanese Christian parents, had a perception of surf lifesaving as something that blond, blue-eyed Aussies did, and found surf clubs intimidating.

With plaques and photos of stern-faced white men lining the walls, and an intensely militaristic organisation, they reminded her of RSL clubs.

"All the military undercurrents were a big turn off, with patrols, captains, and all the marching I saw on the beach," she says.

It was only after a friend introduced her to surf boat rowing that she was inspired to obtain her bronze medallion and join North Steyne Surf Life Saving Club.

Nguyen observed that surf lifesaving was something passed down from father to son, and where outsiders were seen as "blow-ins". His observation is confirmed by the Sound The Siren report, which found that three-quarters of surf club members surveyed were introduced to the club by friends or family, and 70 per cent had family who were current members.

Nguyen decided to join his local club at Woonona on the NSW South Coast at 20, after being swept out to sea with his cousin.

A weak swimmer, he had to turn to some surfers for help. "That was a turning point," he says. "I didn't want to be in that position again."

When he moved to Bronte Surf Life Saving Club four years ago he was welcomed but regarded as a curiosity nonetheless. He has never met another Vietnamese lifesaver.

Lee Howell, who is in charge of the On the Same Wave project, is under no illusions as to the enormity of change needed. When canvassing students from schools in areas such as Bankstown, Auburn and Granville, he found a widespread perception that surf clubs were exclusive and private, and that you needed the fitness of an ironman to participate.

But the fear and suspicion work both ways. Howell met some young people who had never been to the beach before.

There were others who didn't dare do more than paddle around the edges. Parental fear of sharks and drowning played a part in their reluctance.

Nguyen was deliberately kept away from the water as a child by parents who were scared of the ocean. He was fed "a lot of hocus pocus" about how the ocean contained "this thing that would take you out and drown you".

Khawly says she was never encouraged to play sport, particularly competitive sport. "As Lebanese girls, we were brought up to be very feminine, well dressed at all times, with a sense of modesty," she says.

Lebanese Muslim girls who choose to wear the hijab have an extra barrier to overcome as donning a swimming costume on a public beach is unthinkable. But that problem is being addressed by a Punchbowl designer, Aheda Zanetti, who has invented the "burqini", a two-piece, lightweight swimsuit that meets religious requirements for modesty.

Zanetti is also working with SLSA to design red and yellow burqinis for budding Muslim lifesavers.

For Muslim women who don't want to take part in water-based activities, SLSA is running first aid training courses.

One of the keys to the success of the On The Same Wave program will be to induct more children from ethnic backgrounds into Nippers, the junior arm of SLSA.

"Parents see they have an opportunity for their kids that was denied to them," Howell says. "Nippers are tomorrow's lifesavers."

But he stresses On The Same Wave is a long-term project and that we will see the results in the next 20 years.

In the meantime, it will depend on a few pioneering individuals such as Nguyen and Khawly to buck cultural norms, paving the way for others.

Nguyen and Khawly say they have had to adapt to the surf club culture, not the other way around. "I built that bridge, because I enjoyed smashing the stereotype and I was achieving things for the betterment of the club," Khawly says.

Khawly remembers club members viewing her with bemusement in the beginning. "All the older guys were in peals of laughter," she says.

But they started taking her more seriously when she formed a rowing team that became North Steyne Surf Life Saving Club's first all-female competitive crew in several years. Khawly and her fellow "boaties" with Brazilian, Italian and Ukranian backgrounds, called themselves "the wog squad".

They entered their first surf carnival and lost almost every race but they won the respect and admiration of the club for their sheer persistence.

"We were like the Jamaican bobsled team," Khawly jokes.

Nguyen, who swims competitively for his club, says that the voluntary aspect of lifesaving is what makes it such a valuable organisation.

"I really believe in surf lifesaving, and its original idea of people giving up time to make the beach a safer place," he says.

And once you become a "clubbie", you are welcomed into a big family, he says. "Sometimes I look around and see we are united. All from the love of the sun and the sand and the surf."

Nguyen observed that surf lifesaving was something passed down from father to son, and where outsiders were seen as "blow-ins". His observation is confirmed by the Sound The Siren report, which found that three-quarters of surf club members surveyed were introduced to the club by friends or family, and 70 per cent had family who were current members.

Nguyen decided to join his local club at Woonona on the NSW South Coast at 20, after being swept out to sea with his cousin.

A weak swimmer, he had to turn to some surfers for help. "That was a turning point," he says. "I didn't want to be in that position again."

When he moved to Bronte Surf Life Saving Club four years ago he was welcomed but regarded as a curiosity nonetheless. He has never met another Vietnamese lifesaver.

Lee Howell, who is in charge of the On the Same Wave project, is under no illusions as to the enormity of change needed. When canvassing students from schools in areas such as Bankstown, Auburn and Granville, he found a widespread perception that surf clubs were exclusive and private, and that you needed the fitness of an ironman to participate.

But the fear and suspicion work both ways. Howell met some young people who had never been to the beach before.

There were others who didn't dare do more than paddle around the edges. Parental fear of sharks and drowning played a part in their reluctance.

Nguyen was deliberately kept away from the water as a child by parents who were scared of the ocean. He was fed "a lot of hocus pocus" about how the ocean contained "this thing that would take you out and drown you".

Khawly says she was never encouraged to play sport, particularly competitive sport. "As Lebanese girls, we were brought up to be very feminine, well dressed at all times, with a sense of modesty," she says.

Lebanese Muslim girls who choose to wear the hijab have an extra barrier to overcome as donning a swimming costume on a public beach is unthinkable. But that problem is being addressed by a Punchbowl designer, Aheda Zanetti, who has invented the "burqini", a two-piece, lightweight swimsuit that meets religious requirements for modesty.

Zanetti is also working with SLSA to design red and yellow burqinis for budding Muslim lifesavers.

For Muslim women who don't want to take part in water-based activities, SLSA is running first aid training courses.

One of the keys to the success of the On The Same Wave program will be to induct more children from ethnic backgrounds into Nippers, the junior arm of SLSA.

"Parents see they have an opportunity for their kids that was denied to them," Howell says. "Nippers are tomorrow's lifesavers."

But he stresses On The Same Wave is a long-term project and that we will see the results in the next 20 years.

In the meantime, it will depend on a few pioneering individuals such as Nguyen and Khawly to buck cultural norms, paving the way for others.

Nguyen and Khawly say they have had to adapt to the surf club culture, not the other way around. "I built that bridge, because I enjoyed smashing the stereotype and I was achieving things for the betterment of the club," Khawly says.

Khawly remembers club members viewing her with bemusement in the beginning. "All the older guys were in peals of laughter," she says.

But they started taking her more seriously when she formed a rowing team that became North Steyne Surf Life Saving Club's first all-female competitive crew in several years. Khawly and her fellow "boaties" with Brazilian, Italian and Ukranian backgrounds, called themselves "the wog squad".

They entered their first surf carnival and lost almost every race but they won the respect and admiration of the club for their sheer persistence.

"We were like the Jamaican bobsled team," Khawly jokes.

Nguyen, who swims competitively for his club, says that the voluntary aspect of lifesaving is what makes it such a valuable organisation.

"I really believe in surf lifesaving, and its original idea of people giving up time to make the beach a safer place," he says.

And once you become a "clubbie", you are welcomed into a big family, he says. "Sometimes I look around and see we are united. All from the love of the sun and the sand and the surf."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/changing-of-the-guard/2006/11/12/1163266395390.html?page=4

_______________________________

30/10/2006 -
NSW Sport & Recreation is once again running our successful WimSWIM- Women Only Swimming program this coming January and I am forwarding you information with the request to pass this on through your networks, add it to your websites, or include it in your school newsletters.
This program is for women and girls aged 4 ½ years upwards and offers learn to swim lessons or leisure swimming time for those who can already swim. We employ female lifeguards and swimming instructors and the pools are indoor, heated, and private. This time the program is a little different as we are running it intensively with sessions each day, Monday to Friday for two weeks in the school holidays.
When: Monday 8th- Friday 19th January 2007 (excluding Weekends)
Where: Peakhurst West and Villawood Times: between 11.30am- 3.50pm
Cost: Includes pool entry- so nothing more to pay.
Women Learn to swim $95.20
Girls learn to swim $72.50 Leisure Swimming $34.30
Call 13 13 02 to book in.
Birgitte Lund Project Officer Central Region
NSW Sport & Recreation
Phone: 9006 3860 Fax: 9006 3883
________________________________

Burqa + bikini = Burqini for Muslim women lifeguards!

Sydney, Nov 27 (ANI): A mix of burqa and bikni, i.e. burqini has been designed for Muslim women lifeguards!

It would be worn for the first time by the members of one of Australia's most distinguished institutions -- The Volunteer Lifesavers.

According to the Sunday Telegraph, the idea of developing the modesty-saving swimsuit came almost 12 months after violent clashes between young white Australian men and Muslim teenagers on Sydney's Cronulla beach.

"Surf Life Saving Australia", usually associated with strapping, bronzed - and bared - physiques, and sun-streaked hair beneath trademark yellow and red caps, is seeking to update its image by recruiting from ethnic communities, notably Muslims, said the report.

For women who wear traditional Muslim dress, it is unthinkable to sport a skin-tight swimming costume on a public beach. The solution first came from Aheda Zanetti, a Lebanese-born mother of four from Sydney, who designed a two-piece, lightweight swimsuit, nicknamed the "burqini", as an alternative for lifesavers who prefer more modest attire. (ANI)
dailyindia.com

Aussie lifesavers recruit Muslims with ‘burqini’

LAHORE: A modesty-saving swimsuit for Muslim women, known as the “burqini”, is about to be worn for the first time by the members of one of Australia’s most distinguished institutions: the volunteer lifesavers, the Sunday Telegraph has reported. Surf Life Saving Australia, usually associated with strapping, bronzed - and bared - physiques, and sun-streaked hair beneath trademark yellow and red caps, is seeking to update its image by recruiting from ethnic communities, notably Muslims, the report says. The government-funded initiative comes almost 12 months after violent clashes between young white Australian men and Muslim teenagers on Sydney’s Cronulla beach. Critics pointed out that the lifesavers’ attire was an obstacle to the plan to recruit from the Muslim community. For women who wear traditional Muslim dress, it is unthinkable to sport a skin-tight swimming costume on a public beach. The solution came from Aheda Zanetti, a Lebanese-born mother of four from Sydney, who designed a two-piece, lightweight swimsuit, nicknamed the “burqini”, as an alternative for lifesavers who prefer more modest attire.
daily times monitor Pakistan

for modesty priority Christian values swim wear see:
http://www.modest.swimwear.com

satire

Tune "Itsy weeny yellow polka dot bikini"

She was afraid to go into the water
She was as nervous as she could be
She was afraid to go into the water
She was afraid that somebody would see
[One, two, three, four, tell the people what she wore]

It was an imam-sanctioned heavy-duty dark blue overall burquini
That she wore for the first time today.
An imam-sanctioned heavy-duty dark blue overall burquini
Though in her hijab she wanted to stay.
[One, two, three, four, stick around we'll tell you more...]

The hair covering is very important because it protects men from the dreaded effects of hair rays, as described by Amir Taheriin a 2002 Wall Street Journal article. Key quote:

In 1981, Abol-Hassan Bani-Sadr, the first president of the Islamic Republic, announced that “scientific research had shown that women’s hair emitted rays that drove men insane.” To protect the public, the new Islamist regime passed a law in 1982 making the hijab mandatory for females aged above six, regardless of religious faith. Violating the hijab code was made punishable by 100 lashes of the cane and six months imprisonment.