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Nasima – The Most Fearless: The First Female Surfers of Bangladesh

Originally posted on SURFER | By Owen James Burke | Last updated Aug 1, 2025 10:00 AM ET

“She’s the best. I cannot explain to her, but she’s the best,” a young Bangladeshi gentleman addresses a camera from a restaurant table, surrounded by others knowingly nodding with certitude about Nasima Akter. Akter is an anomaly almost beyond comprehension: an abandoned Bengali child turned mother; the nation’s first female lifeguard; and a surfer. She’s also the subject and resolute protagonist of her namesake film “Nasima,” (watch the trailer here) by director Heather Kessinger (“In the Shadow of Buddha”) and co-produced by Cristine Geuther and journalist and surf literature darling, Jaimal Yogis (Saltwater Buddha, All Our Waves Are Water).

When a seven-year-old child finds themself effectively disowned and cast to the streets for refusing a life commencing with panhandling and likely ensuing with much, much worse, things don’t look bright. When that child is female and in Bangladesh, one can only envision an impossible situation.

And yet Nasima Akter left the streets and took to the beach, scraping by selling trinkets and eventually, getting her hands on a surfboard. By age 14, she’d won a local/regional surf contest—beating out the boys—and earning herself $100—better than most monthly salaries in Bangladesh.

Now 25, or thereabouts—her birth was never recorded—Akter has been married, borne children, walked out on an abusive husband who forced her to sell her surfboard, and lost touch with the sea. Just recently, however, she’s found her way back into the water—fiberglass, foam, and all—according to Kessinger.

“Bengali people tell that I’m bad. You know?” Outside of the lineup, women in the waves aren’t looked upon all too fondly, as Yogis found in 2012 while on assignment forAFAR magazine, covering the Bangladeshi surfing scene in Cox’s Bazar, a city with a stretch of beach in the nation’s far southeast with exposure to southerly swells channeling up the Bay of Bengal. There to profile the city’s surf club founder, Yogis quickly took note of a 14- or 15-year-old Nasima, a young lady amongst the pack. He ended up focusing a good chunk of reportage on Nasima.

“She was the only girl surfer at the time and enduring all kinds of taunts from some conservative members of the community who believed women shouldn't swim or surf. Nasima was also one of the best surfers in the club and she just had a special spark and determination about her,” Yogis told me. That article then made its way into the hands of Kessinger, who cold-called Yogis and, thusly, a creative partnership formed.

No shortage of trying events—to say nothing of a certain pandemic—saw the project to a slow start, finish, and release. won best documentary at the 2022 Atlanta International Documentary Film Festival.

While there’s no fairy-tale ending as of yet, and life doesn’t seem to have gotten any easier for Nasima since, she continues to land on her feet, and she’s hopeful about opening up an all-girls surf camp in Cox’s Bazar.

Screenings have been popping up with events coinciding to raise funds for a girls’ surf camp for Nasima to head up, and starting August 1, you’ll be able to watch the film, streaming on TUBI with ads and on Google Play and YouTube for rental and purchase.

The next screening and Q&A with the filmmakers will be held on August 24 in San Rafael, CA at the Smith Rafael Film Center.

Visit the film’s website to learn more about Nasima, her journey, and how you might help.

This article first appeared on SURFER and was syndicated with permission.

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