In Afghanistan, Death Threats Shatter Dream of First Female Pilot
Niloofar Rahmani faces opposition from Taliban as well as members of her own extended family
KABUL—At age 21, Niloofar Rahmani became Afghanistan’s first female fixed-wing military pilot, living out her father’s dream and emerging as a symbol of her country’s revolutionary assent to roles for women outside the home.
That was also when her life began to unravel. “This was my dream job,” the Afghan Air Force captain said. “I never thought I would want to quit.”
Now 23 years old, Capt. Rahmani faces death threats from both the Taliban and members of her extended family for daring to work in the male-dominated world of military aviation. Her parents and siblings also fear for their lives, and the family of eight lives in hiding, their comfortable middle-class life lost.
The U.S.-led coalition had publicized Capt. Rahmani’s achievements, helping turn her into one of the faces of the post-9/11 generation of Afghans, those who came of age after the end of Taliban rule. Online photos of the young pilot in her khaki jumpsuit, loose head scarf and aviator sunglasses went viral.
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Her experience, however, reveals the limits on women’s rights here, despite the sizable investment by the U.S. and its allies to promote gender equality. Among the advances: Girls schools have opened, women have joined the workforce and some have shed their burqas. But efforts to empower women have at times clashed with traditional Afghan culture.
Capt. Rahmani grew up in a family that embraced the
U.S.-backed order that followed the
Taliban’s ouster. When the Afghan Air Force began recruiting women, she signed up in 2011 with the support of her family. She was 18 years old.
“We should have this right in Afghanistan,” she told The Wall Street Journal during training in 2012, and urged other young women to follow. “I decided to join the military to be an example for others.”
Capt. Rahmani flies a Cessna 208 turboprop plane that ferries soldiers to battle—and sometimes brings home their remains. A year ago, she became an aircraft commander.
Her father, Abdoul Wakil, had wanted to join the Afghan Air Force as a young man in the 1980s. “The children knew that their father’s dream hadn’t come true,” he said. “But I never imagined that by becoming a pilot we would face such problems, that we would suffer this much.”
By 2013, Capt. Rahmani had become well-known in Afghanistan and that was when the threatening phone calls began. At first, she had trouble understanding the shouted messages. The men calling didn’t speak her language, Dari. But their message was clear: Quit or die.
A letter then landed on her doorstep one night. “You have not taken our threats seriously,” said the letter, dated Aug. 3, 2013. “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.”
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Ms. Rahmani, 23 years old, received threats from a faction of the Taliban, as well as members of her extended family, for daring to work as a pilot in the Afghan Air Force. PHOTO: SHAH MARAI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGE
The mailed threat was signed by a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, the Tehrik-e Taliban Swat. It advised her “to learn from Malala Yousafzai,” the teenage Nobel laureate who was nearly killed for campaigning for women’s rights in her home valley of Swat, Pakistan. The family, including Capt. Rahmani, temporarily fled to India.
More frightening, Capt. Rahmani said, were threats from relatives who accused her of shaming the family. In one photo widely shared on social media, two female U.S. pilots lifted Capt. Rahmani in celebration after her first solo flight. Rumors spread that the U.S. pilots were actually men, and they were converting her to Christianity.
Some of Capt. Rahmani’s male relatives, including uncles and cousins, believed the only way to restore their family honor was to punish her, she said. After a guard halted a break-in at the longtime family home in Kabul, she said, they sold the house. They have since moved houses every few months.
After Capt. Rahmani returned from India, the Afghan Air Force asked her to quit, saying she had abandoned duty. She said pressure from the U.S.-led coalition kept her job.
Over the past year, Capt. Rahmani’s brother Omar said, he was twice attacked, first in an attempted shooting near his university, and then in a hit-and-run that broke his arm. The family’s main breadwinner—Mr. Wakil, an engineer—lost his job last fall after harassment by his colleagues over his daughter’s notoriety, Mr. Wakil said.
Capt. Rahmani’s older sister, Afsun, has suffered her own consequences: Her husband’s family shunned her, and she is now divorced, a rare and shameful circumstance in Afghanistan. As a result, she hasn’t seen her 4-year-old son in more than a year, according to family members.
“Had I known, I would never have put my family through this,” Capt. 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.”
In March, the U.S. Department of State honored Capt. Rahmani with an International Women of Courage Award, acknowledging the personal risks she took for her career. She visited San Diego to fly with the Navy’s Blue Angels, and the mayor proclaimed March 10, 2015, “Captain Niloofar Rahmani Day.”
Capt. Rahmani’s superiors were reluctant to grant her permission to travel to the U.S. and gave no recognition of the honor when she returned, Capt. Rahmani and foreign officials said.
“Niloofar is not the only one who is being threatened—all pilots are,” said Col. Bahadur Khan, spokesman for the Afghan Air Force. “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, Capt. Rahmani said, her superiors have told her, in essence: You knew what you were getting into. We didn’t force you to join.
“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,” said John Michel, a retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier General who was in charge of the U.S.-led coalition’s Air Training command until August 2014. “It’s disappointing to hear where we are at now.”
Although Afghanistan is short of skilled pilots, Capt. Rahmani hasn’t flown since early July because of security risks.
The U.S. military has offered a chance for her to temporarily relocate to the U.S. for training aboard C-130 transport aircraft, an opportunity she is eager to pursue. She also could enroll in aviation school outside Afghanistan to obtain a commercial pilot’s license, she said, an expensive option her family can’t afford without help.
“I really wanted to be in the military. I really wanted to be in the Air Force,” said the aviator, currently one of three female Afghan military pilots. “But I can’t continue like this.”
—Nathan Hodge contributed to this article.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/in-afgh...hatter-dream-of-first-female-pilot-1438738716
