Against the tide

Bilquis Mir is a canoeist, kayaker, coach and Olympics judge. And to the women athletes of Kashmir, she's a legend, counsellor and friend. Here's how she paddled to the top

- Christalle Fernandes

You'll probably hear about a lot of women this time of the year. International Women's Day brings out tales of women's resilience, their fight to be counted, their lifetime of invisible labour.

What you probably won't hear about are stories of women who've done all that, from a part of India where achievement of any kind, even by men, has been harder.

Bilquis Mir is 38, from Kashmir, and a canoeist, kayaker and water sports coach. She also served as a jury member at the Paris 2024 Olympics, when she judged the water sports events. To Kashmiris, and to her fans across the world, she's simply Aqua Queen. Seems fitting, doesn't it?

“My journey started at the Dal Lake; it’s taken me all the way to Paris,” Mir says. Along the way, she’s coached the national canoeing and kayaking teams. She became the first Indian woman to qualify for the prestigious International Canoe Federation Sprint World Cup in Hungary. But her biggest contribution, and the reason she’s smiling so wide on the cover of our magazine, is “making more women believe they can step out of their homes and make a life for themselves”, she says. And she’s paddled upstream all through.

The oar and the lore

Mir grew up in Khanyar, in downtown Srinagar, in the early ’90s, a time when canoeing and kayaking were just beginning to take off. The Indian Kayaking and Canoeing Association, which governs the sport, had been established only in 1985. Small water sports clubs were just about setting up.