Rashed coached Fatema, Mannan to the Asian Games. Then Bangladesh dropped him from the flight
Since the age of eight, Fatema Akhter has ridden with the waves of the ocean and against the tide of society.
She did both with a surfboard beneath her feet and her coach Rashed Alam guiding her from the shore.
Later this month, in the pristine waters of Akabane Long Beach in Tahara, Japan, when Fatema paddles out into the sea for the umpteenth time in her life, she will become the first Bangladeshi girl to compete at the Asian Games in surfing.
When she picks her wave, gets up on the board and rides it towards the shore, all eyes will be on her, except the one she'll search for.
Rashed, who guided her from Cox's Bazar to Japan, won’t be there.
Why? He is not sure.
The coach left behind
“They just gave me a single update: you aren't going.”
The disappointment in his voice was hard to miss as Rashed told Daily Waadaa how the Bangladesh Surfing Association (BSA) broke the news to him.
On August 31, the National Sports Council (NSC) unveiled the list of 290 names from 22 disciplines who will be part of the Bangladesh contingent at the 20th Asian Games, set to take place from September 19 to October 4.
Surfing was allotted only three names – athletes Fatema, Mohammad Mannan and coach Md Saifullah Sifat, not Rashed.
The omission is surprising, considering Rashed had coached the five-member Bangladesh team in last year’s Asian Surfing Championship held in Tamil Nadu, India, where they finished ninth out of 18 teams to book a spot in the Asian Games.
Sifat, a surfer himself who is serving as the treasurer of the BSA, was also part of that contingent, but as the team lead, handling managerial duties.
But for the Asian Games, Sifat was named the coach – a decision conveyed to Rashed over a phone call by BSA general secretary Md Moazzem Hossain Chowdhury, aka Rokon Chowdhury.
“Rokon bhai personally phoned me to inform me. He told me Sifat is going. He will represent as the coach, and handle everything. They are sending him to manage all official, coaching, and administrative duties for the Bangladesh team.”
Rashed still doesn’t have any clear answer to why he was snubbed.
“I don't know. I found out long after the decision was made,” he said.
“When I asked, they claimed they knew nothing and that the Bangladesh Olympic Association [BOA] decided it. But I argued: how would the Olympic Association even know about us? We only got noticed after qualifying for the Asian Games.
“If we hadn't qualified for the Asian Games, the BOA wouldn't even know who we are. They don't know the ground reality of Bangladesh surfing, who the coach is, or who has been training them. Yet, they gave me this one excuse.”
Waadaa tried to contact Rokon for comment, but he could not be reached.
For Rashed, the disappointment was two-fold. First, not getting to coach Bangladesh in the Asian Games after the athletes qualified under his tutelage. Second, being unable to help his pupils during the biggest competition of their lives.
“Fatema and Mannan, the two surfers going to the Asian Games, are my direct students. Mannan has been with me from the beginning of his surfing career, for around 12-14 years. Fatema has been surfing with the club for around seven years.
“Both of them are very anxious. They feel that if their coach were with them in the water during practice, or at least standing on the shore guiding them, they would feel braver. Now they are going in with fear.
“During competition, I guide them from a distance with signals, showing which direction to catch the wave from. But now, sitting in Bangladesh, I won't be able to give them that guidance.”
Fatema shared how she and the country’s surfing community were stunned by the change of coach just days before the Games.
“I spoke with him [Rokon]. He claimed that there is a lot of paperwork to be done over there. I pointed out that paperwork can easily be managed from our country. He went silent.
“I asked him how we are supposed to compete without our coach. In any sport like cricket or football, teams always travel with their coaches. Our surfing community is struggling to accept this. Everything seemed settled when we qualified in India, but just two weeks ago, they suddenly informed us that our coach isn't going.”
Incomplete vindication
Rashed’s own journey in surfing spans over two decades.
He previously worked as a lifeguard before becoming a surfing instructor. He has lived in the US for a few years, surfed waves in Hawaii, competed in the Asian Surfing Championship in the Maldives in 2023 and opened the Bangladesh Surf Girls and Boys Club 2013.
In his club, he teaches boys and girls from impoverished backgrounds how to surf, providing them with training that could lead to a job as a lifeguard or at least provide them with an escape from their daily hardships.
Mannan, one of his Asian Games-bound pupils, runs a small business selling seashell jewelry along the Sugandha Point to earn a living.
Fatema, a 10th-grade student at Poura Preparatory High School, lost her father at a young age. Her mother, Monowara Begum, does household work at homes to support Fatema, her two sisters, and a brother.
His students all come from similar backgrounds, for whom mere survival is a challenge, leaving hardly any room for dreams.
Even in such trying conditions, Rashed inspired them to surf.
To get girls into surfing, he went door-to-door to try and convince families to allow their daughters to surf.
His belief that surfing can bring a positive change in the lives of young boys and especially girls is vindicated by the successes of Mannan and Fatema.
Fatema has already become a source of inspiration for millions of young Bangladeshi girls.
Getting to guide the duo in the Games as they make history would’ve been the perfect moment of vindication.
But that moment will never arrive, and Rashed has resigned himself to his misfortune.
“What can one do? Those of us in Bangladesh who love surfing, selflessly do this and are dedicated to it, suffer like this; it’s unfortunate.”