A girl, A sea and A city riding the same wave

। Bay Insight Report ।

The sea has always been part of Cox’s Bazar.

For generations, it has shaped the lives of people who live along its shores—through fishing, tourism, work and dreams.

Now, a teenage girl from this coastal city is carrying another part of Cox’s Bazar with her: its waves.

Her name is Fatema Akter.

A Class 10 student, Fatema is preparing to represent Bangladesh at the Asian Games in Japan this September. Bangladesh will be taking part in surfing at the Asian Games for the first time—and Fatema is set to become the country’s first female surfer at the continental sporting event.

In many ways, her story is also a story about Cox’s Bazar.

A place defined by the sea, but still learning how to turn that sea into opportunity.

A place where a girl can grow up beside the world’s longest natural sandy beach, yet still have to explain to people around her why she wants to enter the water.

Not because she is the city itself, but because she has come to represent something deeply rooted in it—the sea, the struggle, the possibilities and the dream of going beyond the horizon.

‘𝐈 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐚𝐬’

Six years ago, Fatema did not know what surfing was.

She was spending time with some friends near the beach when she noticed several girls heading towards the water.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“We’re going surfing,” they replied.

The word was unfamiliar.

“I didn’t know what surfing was. I didn’t even know what a surfboard was,” Fatema recalls.

Her friends invited her to come along.

She did.

The first day was frightening.

A trainer from a local surfing club took her into the water. She was given a board and asked to catch a wave.

She struggled.

Then, somehow, she stood.

“When I took the wave and stood on the board, I really liked it,” she says.

After that, she kept coming back.

Every day.

“Surfing has become part of my blood. I love it.”

What began with curiosity became a passion.

The passion became a dream.

And the dream has now taken her to the Asian Games.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐚

Her first encounter with the ocean was not a story of confidence.

It was a story of fear.

Fatema remembers crying when she first went into the water.

“I was scared. I was crying.”

Then she was given another wave.

This time, she stood on the board.

“I was very happy.”

That moment stayed with her.

Soon, the sea became the place where she felt most free.

“When I surf, I forget all my thoughts and all my problems.”

There is something about standing on a board, she says, that makes her reluctant to leave the water.

“When I stand on the board and take a wave, I don’t want to get off. I just want to stay there.”

For a girl growing up with the pressures of everyday life, the sea became an escape.

But it also became a way forward.

𝐀 𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞

Fatema’s family has not had an easy life.

Her father is no longer alive.

She has three sisters and a brother. Her mother works in hotel kitchens, doing cooking and other work to support the family.

At first, her mother was afraid of seeing her daughter in the sea.

After watching Fatema surf at a competition, she told her:

“You’ll drown. If you drown, who will look after you?”

Fatema had an answer.

“I told her, ‘I can swim. You don’t have to worry about me. Just support me.’”

Eventually, her mother did.

That support has mattered enormously.

Because for Fatema, surfing is not simply about winning competitions.

It is about being allowed to dream.

𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐞

The waves have not been Fatema’s only challenge.

There have also been the people watching from the shore.

In Cox’s Bazar, surfing has become increasingly visible, but a young girl entering the sea with a surfboard can still attract unwanted attention.

People comment on the girls.

They talk about their clothing.

They criticise them.

Sometimes those comments travel from the beach to the neighbourhood and eventually reach their families.

Fatema has heard them.

“So many people look at surfing in a bad way,” she says.

People from her neighbourhood who come to the beach for business sometimes see the girls surfing and later discuss them among themselves.

“They see us and then go home and talk about us. They criticise us. I hear these things.”

Her mother hears them too.

Some people have told her not to let Fatema go to the beach.

But Fatema refuses to let those voices decide her future.

“I don’t listen to them.”

Then she asks a question that goes beyond surfing:

“Why don’t they want a girl to grow?”

For Fatema, this is not just about herself.

She wants girls to be supported when they choose sport.

“If everyone supports a girl, she can go very far,” she says. “It will bring a good name to Bangladesh.”

That belief has become part of her own journey.

𝐂𝐨𝐱’𝐬 𝐁𝐚𝐳𝐚𝐫’𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐉𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐧’𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐬

Japan will bring a different challenge.

Fatema has trained mainly in the waters of Cox’s Bazar.

But the waves she will face in Japan will be larger and different from those she knows at home.

“The waves there are bigger. Our waves are smaller,” she says.

She knows that talent alone may not be enough.

More training is needed.

More exposure.

More time in bigger waves.

And that is where she sees one of the biggest gaps between Bangladeshi surfers and their international competitors.

Surfers from other countries often have greater opportunities to train abroad and experience different kinds of waves.

Fatema wants Bangladeshi surfers to have the same opportunity.

“If we can practise in another country and get your support, we can do much better,” she says.

“We can bring something good for our country and bring honour to Bangladesh.”

𝐀 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐛𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐚 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐚𝐥

Fatema once dreamed simply of going abroad to surf.

She never imagined that she would be preparing for the Asian Games.

“I had always dreamed of going to another country to surf,” she says.

“I never thought I would get an opportunity like the Asian Games.”

Now she is preparing to go to Japan.

But she does not want to return merely with a medal.

She wants to return with attention.

She wants people in Bangladesh to know what surfing is.

And she wants more girls to see themselves on a surfboard.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧

Fatema has her own inspiration.

She follows American surfer Erin Brooks, whose surfing she admires.

“I really like her surfing. I want to surf like her.”

Perhaps that is how many sporting dreams begin.

A young person sees someone else doing something extraordinary and imagines doing it too.

Fatema now wants to become that person for another girl in Bangladesh.

𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐂𝐨𝐱’𝐬 𝐁𝐚𝐳𝐚𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐉𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐧

Bangladesh is a country where cricket and football dominate the sporting landscape.

Surfing is still largely unknown.

Even though Cox’s Bazar is synonymous with the sea, surfing remains a relatively new sport in Bangladesh.

Fatema wants that to change.

“People don’t really know surfing like they know other sports,” she says.

“I want surfing to become like other sports.”

That is why the Asian Games matter to her.

It is not simply a competition.

It is a chance to introduce a sport.

A chance to change perceptions.

A chance to show that a girl from Cox’s Bazar can stand on a board in a foreign sea and represent Bangladesh.

𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐚-𝐢 𝐂𝐨𝐱’𝐬 𝐁𝐚𝐳𝐚𝐫

There is a reason Fatema’s story feels larger than one athlete.

She comes from a city whose identity is inseparable from the sea.

She grew up watching its waves.

She learned to ride them.

She learned to overcome her fear in them.

And now she is taking those waves with her to Japan.

The journey has not been easy.

There have been financial limitations, limited training opportunities and social criticism.

But there has also been a mother who chose to support her daughter.

And there has been a girl who refused to stop dreaming.

Six years ago, Fatema did not know what surfing was.

Today, she is preparing to become Bangladesh’s first female surfer at the Asian Games.

She knows the waves in Japan will be bigger.

She knows her competitors will be more experienced.

But she has already learned the most important lesson from the sea:

You cannot control the wave.

You can only learn how to ride it.

And perhaps that is why *Fatema-i Cox’s Bazar* is more than the name of a girl.

It is a way of describing what she carries with her.

The sea.

The city.

The struggle.

And a dream that refuses to stay within the horizon.