.........The Islamic swimming suit is commonly used in Morocco, Oman, and Algeria and the more elegant design of this outfit, designed by a Turkish designer, is available in Turkey. Mohammad Shahin, the Turkish designer, named his design Heshmat. His motivation for this design was that Muslim women have the chance to enjoy water sports without violating the Islamic codes of modesty. Heshmat swimsuit line becomes more and more popular among the wealthy families in Turkish government.

On the possibility of using this swimming outfit for Iran women’s national swimming team Vahid Moradi, the head of swimming federation in Iran, said in a press conference “We are waiting to get the approval of the Grand Ayatollahs. This Islamic outfit is more modest than many of the cloths women wear in the streets today. Also it is from a light material that doesn’t absorb water so it stays light in the water and it does not affect any of our speed records.”

Since swimming and water sports cover a large variety of sub-sports, it is very important for women to be able to fully participate in these sports. Although it is still soon to think of the international achievements and medal obtainment by Iran women’s swimming national team, it is a hopeful start for our women’s team to be able to actively participate in international competitions. Successful Iranian Swimmers like Leila Vaziri, the winner of the silver and gold medals in Melbourne 2007, only add to the hope that other Iranian women can do the same. Moradi explained, “ If Iranian women swimmers be able to participate in the international competitions, since we have examples such as Leila Vaziri, we can hope that we can get to the highest levels in Asia in a couple of years.”

Even if Iranian women get the permission to officially attend the international competitions with this Islamic swimsuit right away we cannot expect to see any good result soon, because technically and historically the other countries are way ahead of Iran. But we can certainly hope to see a better future for the second and third generation women swimmers.

At present women’s swimming in Iran has a league with five teams. Last week the latest women’s swimming league was held in Tehran with 9 new national records as the result. Foulad-e Mobarake sat on the first place, followed by Azad University team and Zobe Ahan-e Isfahan.

For now we should wait to see if the Grand Ayatollahs give their approval of the women’s Islamic swimming suite. If their answer is positive we can hope for a better future of Iranian women in swimming and other water sports.