Muslim women break taboos

NEW POWER: ALL-FEMALE CLUB TAKE TO LONDON’ S WATERWAYS ON PADDLEBOARDS, KAYAKS

'You can wear anything as long as you’ve got the right equipment.’

Paddle dipped gently below mossy water, Dilruba Begum guided the kayak and a trainee sat in front of her down a canal in east London.

"Out here, you can be anyone," she whispered as she lifted the paddle up to allow the kayak to drift with the current.

Two years ago, when Dilruba, 43, was swamped with mothering duties, a friend told her about a free, women-only programme to learn paddle sports near her home.

Now, she is a qualified paddle sport instructor, after taking part in the programme run by local housing and community regeneration body Poplar Harca.

Dilruba and her fellow paddlers are breaking new ground, encouraging women from London's less advantaged eastern neighbourhoods to embrace water sports that many felt were inaccessible to ethnic minorities like them, with stretched resources and limited leisure time.

The initiative has grown the past two years from a pilot project with 18 women to a group of about 70.

Among them are women who are "working, some are full-time mums, some haven't been out of the house in years", Dilruba said.

Nine of them, including Dilruba and Atiyya Zaman, 38, have qualified as instructors and started London's first boat club with an all-female, Muslim committee.