First fixed-wing Afghan female pilot requests asylum in US

[Reichsmarschall]

First fixed-wing Afghan female pilot requests asylum in US
By KHAAMA PRESS - Sat Dec 24 2016, 10:28 am

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The Afghan Air Force’s first fixed-wing female pilot has sought asylum in the United States, it has been reported.

Capt. Niloofar Rahmani informed regarding her intention to remain in the United States on Thursday after completing a 15-month training in Texas.

“Things are not changing” for the better in Afghanistan, Captain Rahmani told The New York Times in an interview on Friday. “Things are getting worse and worse.”

According to the Times, Capt. Rahmani broke a sobering piece of news to her American trainers, saying she still wants to be a military pilot, but not under her country’s flag. This summer, she filed a petition seeking asylum in the United States, where she hopes to eventually join the Air Force.

This comes as reports emerged late last year suggesting that Capt. Rahmani is receiving death threats.

She is one of the celebrated pilots in the history of Afghanistan for being the first female pilot to fly fixed-wing plane and was presented the International Women of Courage award for the year 2015 in Washington DC.

“Niloofar is as committed to encouraging other young women to follow in her footsteps now as she was as an 18-year-old dreaming of flight school. For her bravery in the face of threats of violence and commitment to an inclusive future for Afghanistan’s women and girls, we honor Captain Rahmani as a woman of courage,” The American 1st lady stated in the citation presented at the ceremony last year.

She graduated from Shindand airbase of Herat province in the year 2013 and at the time of joining the air force academy Nilofar said she wanted to fly with her brothers and serve for her country.

 

[Spring Onion]

I wish her good luck and pray peace comes to the region.

 

[Valar Dohaeris]

Whats the point of wearing uniform, becoming fighter pilot and then apply for asylum in the country which is most certainly responsible for all the mess in her own country. Why did she actually joined the forces ? Just to catch attention and gain fame ?

 

[Devil Soul]

First female Afghan air force pilot seeks asylum in US amid ‘death threats’
By News Desk
Published: December 25, 2016
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Female Afghan air force pilot Niloofar Rahmani is one of the celebrated personalities in Afghanistan for being the first female pilot to fly fixed-wing plane. She was presented the International Women of Courage award last year in Washington. PHOTO: HINDUSTAN TIMES

Afghan air force’s first female pilot, Captain Niloofar Rahmani has sought asylum in the United States, newly surfaced reports claimed.

Afghan news agency, Khaama Press reported on Friday that Rahmani expressed her intention to remain in the US following a 15-month long training period in Texas.

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“Things are not changing” for the better in Afghanistan, Rahmani told The New York Times. “Things are getting worse and worse.” She told her American trainers that she still wants to be a military pilot but not under her country’s flag.

The pilot has already filed a petition seeking asylum in the US, where she hopes to join the air force.

PHOTO: XINHUA

The news comes following reports that Rahmani had been receiving death threats. She was only 18-year-old when the Afghan Air Force announced to recruit pilots. Despite many threats from the Taliban and even members of her own extended family, at 23 she became the first female fixed-wing Air Force aviator in Afghanistan’s history and also the first female pilot in the Afghan military since the demise of the Taliban in 2001.

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In recognition of her services, she was honoured with the US Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Award, along with nine other inspirational women across the world at a ceremony last year. “Rahmani is as committed to encouraging other young women to follow in her footsteps now as she was as an 18-year-old dreaming of flight school,” US First Lady Michelle Obama had said of her at the ceremony.

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Rahmani enlisted in the Afghan Air Force Officer Training Programme in 2010 and graduated as a Second Lieutenant in July 2012. She flew her first solo flight in a Cessna 182 and decided she wanted to fly even larger aircraft. She attended advanced flight school and began flying the C-208 military cargo aircraft.

Even though women are traditionally banned from transporting dead or wounded soldiers, Captain Rahmani defied the orders when she discovered injured soldiers during a mission. She then flew the injured men to a hospital and reported her actions to her superiors who chose not to impose sanctions on her.

This article originally appeared on Hindustan Times.

 

[Kakaspai]

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