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The Seymour Leisure Centre, in Seymour Place |
West End | News | Seymour Leisure Centre | Muslim women swimmers | lifeguards
FOR most people, the only hassle going for a dip at the local pool is remembering to pack your goggles and steering clear of splash-happy children.
But what do you do if your religious beliefs stop you from doing the breast stroke in front of the opposite sex?
That is the problem facing a new swimming club of 60 Muslim women and toddlers from Lisson Grove – which is made even more of a conundrum when there is only one female lifeguard in the whole borough.
Organisers are calling on budding pool attendants to take up the lifeguard’s chair at Seymour Leisure Centre in Seymour Place, Marylebone, where the group swims.
They are also asking the council to find them an extra woman-only slot, because the group has already outgrown its one hour allotment on Wednesday evenings.
Since it was launched with a grant from Westminster Primary Care Trust at the end of March, women from Lisson Grove – many of whom cannot speak English and had never been near a swimming pool in their lives – are queueing up to to jump in.
Romena Toki, who set up the group with her father, Church Street Labour councillor Aziz Toki, said the group had been a huge success despite a number of teething problems.
She said: “First of all we couldn’t get a woman lifeguard at all and most of the group refused to come. The only ones that did were trying to swim in their coats and baggy tracksuits.
“But we really need another hour. Most of these women don’t get out much and a lot of them don’t speak English.
“But 60 women in a pool is too many and at the moment we can only divide them up and give them half an hour each.
“The club is a great way for the group to get out in an environment they feel comfortable in.
“People might say these women should just join in with everyone else. But the group is helping these people adjust and there should be room for everyone.
“I don’t think it’s asking too much.”
Ms Toki went on to say the group had encountered a number of problems, experiencing taunts from one staff member and having to abandon their session because the pool was too cold. They were told it was at “sport temperature” for fast swimmers.
The council said there were a number of women-only swimming sessions in the borough’s three sports centres but there is an “industry-wide” problem finding female lifeguards.
The Seymour Leisure Centre was unavailable to comment. |
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