Aviation dreams turn to nightmare for Afghanistan’s first female fixed-wing military pilot

THIS amazing Afghan woman loved her job and did it well. But now she’s been forced into hiding by those who think what she’s doing is inappropriate.

SHE is a skilled pilot, fulfilling her lifelong aviation dreams while challenging archaic gender stereotypes in her home country.

At just 21, Niloofar Rahmani became Afghanistan’s first female fixed-wing military pilot, fearlessly flying troops in and out of conflict zones in her Cessna 208 turboprop plane.

She was even awarded the US Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Award earlier this year in recognition of her trailblazing achievements in her “dream job”.

But now, at just 23, Captain Rahmani has been forced into hiding because of death threats from the Taliban — and even members of her extended family — for daring to work in a male-dominated field.

“I really wanted to be in the military. I really wanted to be in the air force. But I can’t continue to live like this,” she told the Wall Street Journal.

So how did things get so bad for this courageous young woman?

Captain Rahmani joined the Afghan air force as soon as it opened up roles to women in 2011.

“I saw it as an opportunity to pursue my lifelong dream of becoming a pilot, and I didn’t have to think twice about enlisting for the service,” she said in a tweet dated April 17.

She was just 18 at the time but had the full support of her immediate family, who had embraced the Afghan government that followed the Taliban’s fall from power in 2001. During Taliban rule, her family had defied strict edicts that banned the education of girls and taught a young Niloofar at their Kabul home.

Captain Rahmani said she always wanted to be a pilot, and dreamt she would one day “fly like a bird and have my own wings”. It was also a dream she shared with her father, Abdoul Wakil, who himself had longed to join the air force in the 1980s.

She spent a year studying English to be admitted into flight school and, once in the air force, her role was primarily in cargo transport. She was tasked with flying soldiers into the battle fields and flying them out — sometimes in body bags.

“I can’t wait to fly despite risks and threats,” she told a TOLOnews correspondent who flew with her to Jalalabad, in Afghanistan’s east, in May. “But my passion to fly helps me defy all the threats.”

A year ago, Captain Rahmani became an aircraft commander, and was publicly praised by the US-led Coalition. Photos of her in aviator sunglasses and air force khakis went viral on social media and she emerged as a symbol of female liberation in a country where, until recently, women had been forbidden to work.

“She is a very brave and skilled pilot,” Afghan Air Force pilot Aimal Khair Khowa told the media in May. “She has brought honour to Afghanistan.

“Niloofar is equal to her male counterparts. We are considering her for the position of an instructor for new pilots in future.”

By May, Captain Rahmani had participated in 360 operations and clocked up more than 600 flying hours in her short career.

But perhaps she was becoming too well known.

About two years ago Captain Rahmani started to receive menacing phone calls. The men shouting at her over the phone didn’t speak her native language, Dari, but she could understand enough of what they were telling her: quit or die.

She then received a threatening letter one night in August 2013. “You have not taken our threats seriously,” it read. “Islam has instructed women not to work with the Americans or British. If you carry on doing your job, you will be responsible for your destruction and that of your family.”

The letter was signed by a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, the Tehrik-e Taliban Swat, the Wall Street Journal reported. It advised her “to learn from Malala Yousafzai”, the teenage Nobel laureate who was nearly killed for campaigning for women’s rights in Pakistan.

Captain Rahmani and her family temporarily fled to India.

It got even worse when extended family members accused Captain Rahmani of shaming her family. A photograph that went viral on social media, which showed two female US pilots lifting Captain Rahmani in the air to celebrate a solo flight, attracted rumours the pilots were actually men who were trying to convert her to Christianity.

The family were forced to sell their house in Kabul after an attempted break-in. They have had to move houses every few months since.

Captain Rahmani’s brother Omar has been attacked twice — first in an attempted shooting and then in a hit-and-run that left him with a broken arm.

Her father, the household’s main breadwinner, lost his job due to harassment from colleagues about his daughter’s notoriety.

Her sister was shunned by her husband’s family and she became divorced, which is rare and shameful in Afghan society. She hasn’t seen her four-year-old son in more than a year.

“Had I known, I would never have put my family through this,” Captain Rahmani said.

“Despite the situation we are in, they are still supporting me. Sometimes I feel that if I didn’t have their support, I wouldn’t be alive.”

When she returned to Kabul from the family’s temporary sanctuary in India, the Afghan Air Force told her she should quit because she had abandoned duty.

Then in May, the air force was reluctant to let Captain Rahmani travel to the US to accept her International Women of Courage Award. While she was there, she was invited to fly with the navy’s Blue Angels squadron and San Diego’s mayor even proclaimed March 10 “Captain Niloofar Rahmani Day”.

But the Afghan Air Force refused to recognise her achievements upon her return.

“Niloofar is not the only one who is being threatened — all pilots are,” the air force’s spokesman Colonel Bahadur Khan told the Wall Street Journal.

“The enemy doesn’t distinguish between men and women. She should stand firm against the threats and serve the country bravely.”

Of the threats and attacks on her family, Captain Rahmani said the Afghan Air Force have essentially told her: you knew what you were getting into.

“Her visibility served on one hand as a source of inspiration, but on the other hand as an irritant to those who were not progressively minded,” retired US Air Force Brigadier General John Michel said.

“It’s disappointing to hear where we are at now.”

Security risks have stopped Captain Rahmani from flying since early July, despite a shortage of skilled pilots in Afghanistan.

She is keen to pursue an opportunity by the US military to temporarily relocate to the US for training aboard C-130 transport aircraft. She is also eager to enrol in aviation school outside Afghanistan to obtain a commercial pilot’s licence, an expensive option she said her family couldn’t afford without help.

But for now, the passionate aviator’s dreams remain a nightmare for her and her family.

“I never imagined that by becoming a pilot we would face such problems, that we would suffer this much,” her father Abdoul said.