Children who don't learn to cycle miss out on so much – as I know too well | Nazia Parveen

Cycling makes children confident and fit. It’s a national scandal that so few have a skill that is as basic as reading

I would sit on our front doorstep watching in awe as my brother did wheelies on his BMX, whizzing up and down our cul-de-sac with his friends – with me looking on enviously, but never asking to have a go.

It was just not the done thing. Growing up in a Pakistani household in inner-city Birmingham I had never seen any of my female peers cycling. It’s not something that I discussed with my parents; they weren’t against it, but they never encouraged it either. It was ingrained that perching atop a saddle in a salwaar kameez (traditional Pakistani dress) was un-ladylike. So I never learned.

You miss out on the freedom it affords you, the health benefits, the expansion of social horizons

Related: Manchester makes a Beeline for new Dutch-style cycling network

Related: 'The feeling of freedom': empowering Berlin's refugee women through cycling

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from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2LdDSSA