There was an angry reaction in Afghanistan to news that the first female fixed-wing pilot in the country’s air force was requesting asylum in the United States after completing an 18-month training course.
The Afghan defence ministry confirmed on Sunday that Captain Niloofar Rahmani, 25, had sought asylum after the Wall Street Journal quoted her as saying that she feared her life would be in danger if she returned home.
A recipient of the US State Department’s “Women of Courage” award in 2015, Capt. Rahmani had been a symbol of efforts to improve the situation of women in her country, more than a decade after the fall of the Taliban regime.
Mohammad Radmanish, a defence ministry spokesperson, said the government hoped that her request would be denied by US authorities who have spent billions trying to build up Afghan security forces.
“When an officer complains of insecurity and is afraid of security threats, then what should ordinary people do?” he said. “She has made an excuse for herself, but we have hundreds of educated women and female civil right activists who work and it is safe for them.”
Capt. Rahmani, who graduated from flight school in 2012 and qualified to fly C-208 military cargo aircraft, had been in the United States on a training course and had been due to return home on Saturday.
In a conservative country notorious for the restrictions placed on women, Rahmani’s story stood out as a rare example of a woman breaking through in areas normally reserved for men.
Her success came at a price, however. The citation for the “Women of Courage” award said she and her family had received direct threats not just from the Taliban but also from some relatives, forcing her family to move house several times.
However, there was little sympathy on Afghanistan’s active social media networks, which were replete with comments criticising Rahmani, accusing her of wasting government money spent on expensive training and avoiding her responsibilities.
“Niloofar Rahmani took a million dollars from the pockets of the people of Afghanistan to pay human traffickers to get to America to seek asylum,” one Facebook user wrote in comments.
Dozens of Afghan troops receiving training in the United States have gone missing over the past two years, and at least one has been detained while trying to cross the border to Canada.
“She has made an excuse for herself, but we have hundreds of educated women and female civil right activists who work and it is safe for them…………………………..
The defense minister knows very well, hundreds of educated women and female rights activist in his country, given the opportunity they will do the very same thing as Neelofar, seek asylum in a western country to live a life of freedom, equality and justice, free from fear and gender discrimination and oppression. Neelofar has the opportunity to get a well paid job as a civilian pilot in US, get married to a nice educated man, have some nice children and live a happy life instead of living in Afghanistan under the yoke of male subservience and domination. How can female be loyal to a country and society which is neither fair nor just to her?
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