The City of Mississauga recently concluded a unique program that gave Muslim women a chance to test the waters — literally.
Eleven Muslim women celebrated their accomplishments last Saturday at Mississauga Valley Community Centre, where they were recognized for completing lifeguard training.
The one-year program was funded by the City and the Lifesaving Society of Ontario after officials determined that the diversity of Mississauga needed to be represented at City swimming pools as well, said Juanita Bueschleb, the City’s aquatics supervisor.
“We have a large Muslim population in Mississauga and we have opportunities for swimming, but we had very few opportunities for gender-specific recreational swimming or leadership training,” said Bueschleb, who also sits on the Lifesaving Society’s board of directors. “So we decided to start with a pilot project because our traditional product line just didn’t fit.”
She said Mississauga is the first municipality in North America to introduce such a project.
Photo by Peter McCusker
National Lifeguard Certifications were earned by 11 local Muslim women. (l-r) Amina Phillips, Iman Ibrahim, Souzan Mansour, Samina and Karima Kebir, Lina Khatib, Imtisal Al-Bondokji, Ayah Barakat, Suzan Hallak and Manar Srajeldin. Ceremonies were held at the Mississauga Valleys Community Centre Saturday evening. “I do know that there was a Muslim Lifeguard program in Australia, but that’s the only other one I have heard of,” Bueschleb said.
Swimming at City-run pools posed a problem for sisters Karima and Samiya Kebir, graduates of the lifeguard program. They said they had to modify conventional swim wear to accommodate their religious beliefs (Islam requires women to be modestly covered, navel to knee).
In addition, Karima, 22, and Samiya, 17, said they were uncomfortable in the presence of men using the pool, including lifeguards.
It seems they weren’t alone.
Almost two decades ago in Mississauga, several Muslim women interested in learning to swim decided to book private sessions at City-run pools. For these private sessions, the City provided female lifeguards. However, the program fell apart after the volunteer who started it moved out of the city.
The most-recent lifeguard program filled the gap nicely.
“At first I thought it was a cool thing to join,” Karima said. “But once I got into it and realized I would be a lifeguard, a Muslim lifeguard, it felt great. It is an accomplishment for me.”
When the City decided to launch the pilot project last year, it approached the Muslim community for participants. The Multicultural Inter-Agency Group of Peel was happy to partner with the City.
Bueschleb said the lifeguard course for the Muslim women was in compliance with national standards.
“There were no modifications made to the program standards, but what we did do was make accommodations in the environment that the program was offered,” she said. "(The course) was in a single-gender environment with blinds on the windows (of the swimming pools), and taught by female staff.”
In the pool, Karima prefers to wear a one-piece swimsuit over soccer shorts that skim her knees, while some of her classmates opted for tights underneath their swim wear. And, because it was a women’s class, students could put aside their hijabs for the five-hour weekly sessions.
“We thought by investing in this training program, we could train more people from the Muslim community as lifeguards and therefore give them the opportunity to expand their swim programs,” said Russ Pooley, a community development coordinator for the City.