Zainab Altameemi stands in the outdoor pool of the Trotter Family YMCA in west Houston, Texas. She wears a black burkini, a swimsuit that covers her hair and entire body. A swim instructor encourages her to float on her back.
The Iraqi refugee is one of many women taking swimming lessons. For most of the women, this is the first time they’ve had the opportunity to learn. Their Iraqi and Syrian cultures do not allow women to swim. Even going to a public pool is looked down upon as inappropriate for women and girls.
Interfaith Ministries of Houston offers classes for the life-saving skill to refugees as a “first step here in America,” according to Sonobar Badeel. She is a refugee from Iraq.
The classes are about more than simply learning to swim. They signify women overcoming fears and thriving in a new country with new ways.
Altameemi and her family came to the United States as refugees in 2016. She had seen her husband—who is Egyptian—swim in the Mediterranean Sea, and love it. But for her, the experience was foreign and terrifying.
At the first mention of swimming lessons, the refugee thought, “No way.” But then she reconsidered. She remembered her husband’s joy. Her three children had learned to swim and delighted in it. Altameemi began to change her mind. “I like to learn,” she thought. Learning, she says, brings her joy.
During the first class, she and about a dozen other women clung to the wall of the pool at the shallow end. Each tried to encourage the others to be brave and let go. Badeel was the first to do so. Even just that felt like an achievement.
“It was so hard the first day, but then it was just an incredible feeling,” she recalls, beaming. The former teacher from an Iraqi village near Mosul let herself be taught, a little at a time.
Moving to America from Iraq was a fearful journey for Badeel and her family. She and her husband were both teachers in their homeland. They had regular income and a decent home for their children. But when ISIS took over in 2014, everything changed. Badeel and her husband stayed awake at night to protect their children. Later that year, they fled to Kurdistan and then to the United States two years later.
Badeel says her entire focus for the last few years has been overcoming fear. Learning to swim is just a step in that journey for the 36-year-old.
“I don’t want my kids to be afraid of anything,” Badeel says. “When kids see that we’re not afraid, they’re not even going to think of a reason to be scared.”
Going from a society where swimming is unacceptable for women, to one where it’s normal, highlighted for Badeel and Altameemi the opportunities they have in America.
They hope to achieve much more. Badeel is studying to re-validate her teaching certificate to teach elementary school. Altameemi wants to master English for more independence. After that, she wants to learn computer skills, she says.
(Nidhal Khille, a Muslim refugee, listens to instructor Kirby Frank during a swim lesson with other women at Trotter Family YMCA with the assistance of Interfaith Ministries in Houston. Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle via AP)
