Women’s Swimming Time

What started as an issue in the Muslim community for women who wanted the opportunity to use swimming as their exercise and to spend time with their kids at the pool, turned into much more. When members of Dar-al-Taqwa Mosque started working with PATH on a campaign to win a women's swimming time, we discovered that there were many other women who also wanted this opportunity. Some were of other religious faiths, some were young women who wanted more privacy when they swam, others were in treatment for cancer or cancer survivors.

When the story about the swimming time was published in the Baltimore Sun, it started to receive national attention. Suddenly the leaders of the Columbia Association (which had agreed to hold the women's swimming times) were receiving hate filled phone calls and voice messages from across the country. PATH stood together, turning out over 75 people on the rainy Tuesday before Thanksgiving to thank the Columbia Association for supporting the women's swimming time, and to ask them to continue their support. The leadership of Columbia Association shared how moved they were to see the community standing together in support of this new program.