AFGHANISTAN’S FIRST FEMALE PILOT IS NOW FIGHTING TO FLY FOR THE US MILITARY
MILITARY
By Mac Caltrider | June 30, 2022
When she was a child living in Kabul under the Taliban regime, Niloofar Rahmani would spend hours gazing up at the birds and fantasizing about one day sharing their freedom to fly. With no opportunities to receive a formal education, Rahmani never considered the possibility that she might grow up to be a pilot. But thanks to the home-schooling she received from her mother, and the integration of women into the Afghan military in 2009, Rahmani was able to make her dream a reality. She ultimately became the first female pilot in the Afghan Air Force and flew combat missions during Operation Enduring Freedom.
Rahmani now lives in Florida with her family, where she is working toward flying again. We sat down with her to discuss her extraordinary journey, her memoir, Open Skies: My Life as Afghanistan’s First Female Pilot, and her current fight to join the United States military.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
COD: You were born in Kabul during the chaotic period that followed the Soviet-Afghan War. What was it like growing up in an unstable country and later under Taliban rule?
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