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Riding High on Ocean Waves-by Hannah Ellis Petersen Shamali Sanjaya (centre) with members of the Arugam Bay Girls Surf Club Source:Dailynews Women and girls have challenged conservative attitudes  in the hallowed surf spot of Arugam Bay, Sri Lanka Growing up in a small fishing village along the East Coast of Sri Lanka, Shamali Sanjaya would often sit on the beach and look out at the boisterous waves. She would watch in envy as others, including her father and brother, grabbed surfboards, paddled out into the sea and then rode those waves smoothly back to shore. “I longed for it in my heart,” she said. But as a local woman, surfing was strictly out of bounds for her. In Sri Lanka’s conservative society, the place for women was at the home and it was only the men, or women tourists, who were allowed to ride the hallowed waves in Arugam Bay, ...