The Daily Populous Sunday July 21st, 2024 evening edition
Authored by bbc.com and submitted by sparki_black

Cycling sisters defy the Taliban to achieve Olympic dream

4 days ago By Firuz Rahimi and Peter Ball , BBC World Service in Aigle, Switzerland Share

BBC Yulduz (left) and Fariba Hashimi both came late to cycling

Speeding along a road in the foothills of the Swiss Alps, Fariba Hashimi rises out of the saddle of her £15,000 bike and works the pedals even harder to close the gap between her and her sister, Yulduz, a few metres up ahead. Training rides like this are the last steps on a journey that began with the two siblings from rural Afghanistan racing in disguise on borrowed bikes, before having to escape when the Taliban came to power. Now they're on their way to the Olympic Games in Paris. And, despite a Taliban ruling banning women from sport, they will compete under their country's flag.

Yulduz and Fariba will take part in the road race event at the Paris Olympics

In a world where many elite athletes take up sport almost as soon as they can walk, Fariba, 21, and Yulduz, 24, came late to cycling. They grew up in Faryab, one of the most remote and conservative provinces in Afghanistan, where it was practically unheard of to see women on bicycles. Fariba was 14 and Yulduz 17 when they saw an advert for a local cycle race and decided to take part. There were two problems; they didn’t have a bike and they didn’t know how to ride. The sisters borrowed a neighbour's bike one afternoon. After a few hours, they felt they had got the hang of it. Their next challenge was to avoid their family finding out what they were doing because of the stigma around women taking part in sport in conservative areas of Afghanistan. The sisters used false names and covered themselves up, wearing big baggy clothing, large headscarves and sunglasses so people didn't recognise them. Race day dawned, and incredibly the sisters came first and second. “It felt amazing,” says Fariba. “I felt like a bird who could fly."

Fariba and her sister left Afghanistan after the Taliban took power

They kept on entering races and kept on winning until their parents eventually found out when they saw pictures of them in the local media. "They were upset at first. They asked me to stop cycling," Fariba says. "But I didn't give up. I secretly continued," she smiles. It didn’t come without dangers - people tried to hit them with cars or rickshaws as they rode or threw stones at them as they cycled past. "People were abusive. All I wanted to do was win races," says Yulduz. And the situation was about to get worse.

In 2021, four years after the sisters started riding, the Taliban retook control of the country and clamped down on women’s rights, restricting their access to education and limiting how they could travel. They also banned women from taking part in sport. Yulduz and Fariba had dreamed of one day competing in the Olympics. Now they knew if they wanted to race at all they had to leave Afghanistan.

After leaving Afghanistan Yulduz and her sister first trained with a cycling team in Italy

Using contacts in the cycling community they managed to secure seats on an Italian evacuation flight, along with three teammates. Once in Italy, the women joined a cycling team and got proper coaching for the first time. “Back in Afghanistan, we didn’t have professional training,” says Yulduz. “All we used to do was take our bikes and ride.” But leaving their homeland and family was not easy. “The biggest thing for me is to be away from my mother,” says Fariba. “I never thought that because of cycling I would be separated from my brothers and sisters.” “I’ve sacrificed a lot.” The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan also threw into doubt whether the country would even be allowed to compete at the Olympics. National Olympic Committees are supposed to select athletes for the Games without any government interference. As the Taliban’s ban on women playing sport breaks this rule, by preventing women being chosen for Afghanistan’s team, it led to calls for the country to be banned from the Olympics - as it had been when the militant group was last in power. But the International Olympic Committee wanted to find a way to allow Afghan women to compete at the Games. Behind the scenes talks took place between the heads of Afghan sporting bodies, including some now living in exile, about putting together a special team to represent the country in Paris.

As time ticked by, and Paris 2024 got ever closer, it looked as if no Afghan athletes would be at the Games. Then, in June, International Olympic Committee announced that it had arranged for a special gender-equal team representing Afghanistan to go the Paris Olympics. It would be made up of three women and three men. And both the sisters are among them. “This was a big surprise for both of us,” says Fariba. “We always dreamt of taking part in the Olympic Games, this is our dream come true,” Yulduz adds. “Despite all the rights that were taken from us we can show that we can achieve great success, we will be able to represent 20 million Afghan women.”

Yulduz and Fariba train with a development team based at the World Cycling Centre and run by the UCI, the sports global governing body

The IOC say no Taliban officials will be allowed to attend Paris 2024.

birdmommy on July 21st, 2024 at 12:32 UTC »

It’s nice to see the UCI actually doing something to help cyclists. Wish both young women great success.

Koakie on July 21st, 2024 at 09:44 UTC »

> And, despite a Taliban ruling banning women from sport, they will compete under their country's flag.

At first, I thought, why still want to represent a country that treats women like that.

But on the other hand, it's a big 🖕FU to the taliban.

dukeofnes on July 21st, 2024 at 05:21 UTC »

TLDR: they fled to Italy in 2021 to make this possible.