Woman Afghan AF Pilot Seeks Asylum

[bafanguy]

It'll be interesting to see how this turns out. Her minders at home aren't likely all that happy about her actions. Now that she's tipped her hand, it may be very problematic for her to go home without experiencing some "official" expression of disapproval.

Our esteemed First Lady and State Department have praised and championed Capt. Rahmani. We'll see where these effusive supporters are now:


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/opinion/a-female-afghan-pilot-soars-and-gives-up.html?action=click&contentCollection=Asia%20Pacific&module=RelatedCoverage&region=EndOfArticle&pgtype=article

[ATC Watcher]

If you read the article and if she says is true , I do not blame her.
She is obviously a very bright young lady, and guts she has. both ways. Going back to her Country after training and face hard facts or worse when the Taliban take over ( only a question of time ) or not going and facing shame and hard critics right now.
The choice was probably not easy to make. I really wish her the best and hope for her this ends well.

[bafanguy]

"If you read the article and if she says is true , I do not blame her. "

ATC Watcher,

Nor would I. Her fears are likely reasonable.

Sometimes these folks just vanish..or try to:


Air Force: Missing Afghan trainees were about to graduate - WALB.com, South Georgia News, Weather, Sports (http://www.walb.com/story/30698364/air-force-missing-afghan-trainees-were-about-to-graduate)

[semperfubar]

Though i appreciate her position and in the same place would probably do the exact same thing. But, What exactly did she think the risk would be as a female air force pilot in the AAF? Its not exactly a 'duh' difiicult answer

[bafanguy]

"What exactly did she think the risk would be as a female air force pilot in the AAF?"

semperfubar,

Yep, gutsy move. But where there's risk there can be rewards. She's pretty high profile with her plan. Maybe Chairman Barack will come to her rescue with asylum...maybe not.

She's been at it for a while now:

http://www.shughal.com/meet-niloofar-rahmani-afghanistans-first-female-pilot-to-serve-the-air-force/

[Nemrytter]

Why so much animosity towards her? And your comments about 'Charman Barack' are more appropriate to Jet Blast (or play school) than to here.

[Chronus]

She`d make a great FAC for the USAF.

[bafanguy]

" Why so much animosity towards her?"

Nemrytter,

If you're asking me, I'm not sure where you saw animosity in anything I said about her. I'm actually rootin' for her. :-)

Obama will need to intervene on her behalf and should since his wife and administration have advocated for her previously.

[Concours77]

My pilot's license made me think I could do anything also. It wasn't true. I was still a C student with too many expectations.

"She`d make a great FAC for the USAF."

Missing the "blanks" of "blank"?

[Airbubba]

An Afghan colleague from years ago was a very young B-727 captain for Ariana, the Afghan airline. At some point, I think in the mid-1980's, he and his crew and some family members 'repurposed without authorization' a parked '72, got it fueled and flew it to Rome where they were granted asylum by U.S. embassy officials. It appeared to be a pre-arranged deal from the circumstances.

I haven't found a lot online about the incident but expat Afghans of that era seem to remember it well.

My former Afghan colleague recently retired as a Delta captain. :ok:

[bafanguy]

A young lady from Pakistan undertook a somewhat similar arduous path to fly in the USA. While not under quite such dramatic circumstances as the Afghan lady, still quite a trek against serious societal pressure. IIUC, she now flies for a US legacy carrier:


https://www.scribd.com/doc/276537111/FATIMA-SHAFI-Ninety-Nines-Magazine-20150708#scribd

"Delta Air Lines Boeing 757/767 Type Rating Certificate Scholarships
Sheila Dill, Ohio
Fatima Shafi, New York"

I think the scholarship actually ended up being for the B777 due to availability of training slots.

https://www.wai.org/scholarship/winners/2015

[bafanguy]

"My former Afghan colleague recently retired as a Delta captain."

Airbubba,

Is he O-DL or F-NW ?

Heck of a story.

[Airbubba]

"My former Afghan colleague recently retired as a Delta captain."

Airbubba,

Is he O-DL or F-NW ?

Heck of a story.

Ex-PAA, was number one newhire on the Pan Am seniority list in 1987. Initials MB.

[Fonsini]

When you originate from a fundamentalist state where the basic education of women is deemed to be an offence to Allah requiring schools to be burned down with the little girls still sat inside them, it should come as no surprise that on receiving her pilot's wings she was promised a real set of wings and a cloud to go with them.

The process of civilising places such as Afghanistan will outlive our great-grandchildren and I for one do not blame this talented young woman for deciding she doesn't want to wait.

[NutLoose]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/25/world/asia/afghanistan-niloofar-rahmani-asylum-air-force-pilot.html?mabReward=A6&recp=0&moduleDetail=recommendations-0&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&region=Footer&module=WhatsNext&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&src=recg&pgtype=article


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/17/world/asia/afghanistan-kandahar-women-in-the-work-force.html?action=click&contentCollection=Asia%20Pacific&module=RelatedCoverage&region=EndOfArticle&pgtype=article

[Martin the Martian]

Well if her male colleagues say it's not true then of course it isn't.:rolleyes:

[m0nkfish]

They stopped paying her when she got there and months later is anyone surprised she doesn't want to go back!?

[bafanguy]

Niloofar Rahmani seems to have dropped off radar. I find nothing about her online since late 2016. It'd be interesting to see how she's made out in her effort under the new US administration.

[Fonsini]

She is still waiting for her asylum request to be considered by the state department. Could take months.

[Training Risky]

Devil's advocate: Isn't it cowardice or desertion to join your nation's armed forces and then refuse to go back and fight for your own people once you have seen the benefits of a cushy number in America?

[bafanguy]

"She is still waiting for her asylum request to be considered by the state department. Could take months. "

Fonsini,

She must've been pretty well "vetted" when she came here for training.

Is an organization supporting her in the meantime ? There are living expenses and there must be legal fees. That takes money...

[bafanguy]

Here are the circumstances into which she was headed. Looks like every pilot loss would be felt:



https://aviationvoice.com/afghan-air-force-needs-more-pilots-and-planes-201608171028/

[bafanguy]

Even The Google has lost track of her. So....what regional is she flying for ? ;-))

[bafanguy]

Update from about a year ago:


“Motley, Rahmani’s lawyer — who has known the pilot for three years and has helped support her as she waits in limbo for the U.S. to make a decision on the request — said her client was remaining emotionally 'strong' through the process, as diplomatic backchanneling plays out in Washington, D.C., and Kabul. The aviator, who has been allowed to achieve more than most women in her home country, has temporarily stopped giving public interviews due to the sensitivity and confidentiality surrounding the matter, which has gained worldwide attention. They are also not disclosing her location at this time as a safety precaution.”

https://www.rightsuniversal.org/afghan-pilot-hopeful-of-asylum-request/

[bafanguy]

A bit of an update on Afghan pilots training in the USA. The woman who is the subject of this thread, Niloofar Rahmani, is mentioned in the 2nd link below but still no statement about what she's doing now:

https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2019/05/02/afghan-pilot-training-ends-after-almost-half-went-awol-in-america/

"After being granted asylum, Ms Rahmani told The Wall Street Journal (https://www.wsj.com/articles/afghanistans-first-female-pilot-granted-asylum-in-u-s-1525185293): 'All I want now is to go back to my dream of flying'."

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/afghanistan-first-female-pilot-us-asylum-granted-niloofar-rahmani-taliban-threats-a8336051.html

[bafanguy]

Kind of wondered what she had in mind for herself. Looks like a tough row to hoe:

“Rahmani said she has not been able to fly since she has gotten to America, but she wants to fly again and join the U.S. Air Force.”

https://www.stripes.com/news/assassins-threaten-multibillion-dollar-us-efforts-to-keep-afghan-airmen-flying-1.552494

[Airbubba]

A bit of an update on Afghan pilots training in the USA. The woman who is the subject of this thread, Niloofar Rahmani, is mentioned in the 2nd link below but still no statement about what she's doing now:

Yet another update on this 'global feminist icon' from the empowerment advocacy journalism site BuzzFeed.


Grounded

One of the first women to fly in the Afghan air force, Niloofar Rahmani was feted as a global feminist icon and honored by Michelle Obama. But as the decade closes, she’s separated from her family, her dreams in tatters.

Megha RajagopalanPosted on December 14, 2019, at 11:11 a.m. ET


TAMPA, Florida — Sitting outside a sidewalk café on the waterfront in Tampa, a light breeze making for one of those perfect fall afternoons, is a feminist icon.

You might not recognize her — and the tourists eating ice cream and skateboarding kids certainly didn’t — but Niloofar Rahmani is one of the best-known Afghan women in the world.

That’s because Rahmani, 28, shot to fame in 2013 after she became the first woman to pilot a fixed-wing jet in Afghanistan’s air force. Photographs of her in dark aviator sunglasses, with a scarf loosely covering her black hair, went viral across the world. Look at what the women of Afghanistan can do, the pictures seemed to scream.

Niloofar Rahmani, 23, Afghanistan's first female pilot to serve in the air force since the fall of the Taliban.

For Rahmani, it should have been a time of triumph. After all, she had dreamed of flying a plane since she was a little girl — however impossible that might have seemed to a young woman growing up in a conservative society.

But in the years since, her dreams have all but fallen apart. She has been accused of desertion, of acting improperly for an Afghan woman, and she and her family have received hundreds of death threats — some from anonymous trolls, some even from members of her own extended family. As Rahmani became more successful as a pilot and more famous, the threats against her multiplied until her life in Afghanistan became unbearable.

Rahmani’s family has been forced to move again and again, leaving behind the house in the capital, Kabul, that her family had lived in for generations. Her father lost his job because his employer saw the threats as a liability; her siblings couldn’t find work. Rahmani ended up having to cover her face with a niqab just to leave the house.

After years of living in hiding with her family, Rahmani — who prided herself on never giving a damn what anyone thought of her — did something she never believed she’d have to do: She fled.

Rahmani’s story is a testament to the cost born by the women in Afghanistan whom the West has elevated as feminist heroes. As the US negotiates with the Taliban in hopes of a peace deal, women’s rights (https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/meghara/afghanistan-women-peace-talks) have been largely ignored, and women across the country face an uncertain future.

It’s not as if Rahmani ever really wanted to become a feminist hero — she just wanted to be a pilot. Now, she believes her only path forward lies in the US, where she sits in administrative limbo waiting for her life to begin again.

Sitting beside her sister at the café in Tampa last month, Rahmani wore her long hair loose and a black floral dress. Most of her face was covered — by a big pair of sunglasses, even if they weren’t the aviators she’d like to be wearing right now.

Rahmani has been living in Tampa since the US granted her asylum in 2018, while her sister Afsoon is still seeking asylum. Rahmani said she might be safe now, but it’s a hollow feeling. No longer able to fly, she works as a translator between the three languages in which she is fluent: Farsi, Dari, and English.

Rahmani dreams of flying planes again; this time for the US Air Force. To do that, she would have to become a citizen first, and, as it’s unclear how long that might take, she worries that her skills will decline in the meantime.




More in the rest of the article:

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/meghara/the-badass-afghan-pilot-who-went-massively-viral-is-now (https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/meghara/the-badass-afghan-pilot-who-went-massively-viral-is-now)


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/2000x1607/pilot3a_4672ff75ccdd0542968b3bb90faf7b72cc7d1cbd.jpg

Gotta love that squadron patch: Combat Cessnas Afghanistan: No Guns, No Armor, No Problem. :ok:


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1736x1080/pilot3a_2_large__9ff1cb591230e3cd19175e37f7a97b9de2160eab.jp g

[bafanguy]

'bubba,

She was on my list of things to Google but just hadn't gotten around to her yet. She's an interesting case study on a couple of levels. All things considered, I'm on her side.

I don't know about 'global feminist icon' but perhaps she is in some quarters. She's keeping a pretty low profile for an icon. She's rarely mentioned in the media where icons live...and the media control that. Apparently, she's also slipped Michelle's mind of late (funny how one's usefulness can be so fleeting).

But women from her part of the world appear to have a tough go of it.

I'm surprised no one has picked up her banner and run with it in a more public way. A few tweaks in immigration with some more flying time and she'd be flying for a regional. Her celebrity status would be PR fodder for an employer with social justice tendencies (cough...cough...a big southern-based airline).

I wish her luck.