Do you think the women of the Afghan cycling team see themselves as champions of women’s rights?
These women are, of course, incredibly courageous doing what they are doing. They are a unique group of women in that they and others like them in their late teens and early twenties really embody the future of Afghanistan.
These girls grew up in a post-Taliban era… their formative years have been since the Taliban were technically pushed out of power, and during this last decade there’s been a lot of focus on getting girls into school and women into politics: they are reaping those benefits of increased access and opportunity. They aren’t cycling to be revolutionary, thinking “we’re the first women to do this and we’re gonna change our country.” They are doing it because the opportunity is there and it’s a new sport to try and they look at it as something that their brothers do, so why shouldn’t they?
It’s a very small percentage of the population that has those opportunities, but the women who do and are seizing those opportunities.
It’s interesting to see this shift of young women looking at controversial things like politics, activism, riding a bicycle, sports and education. It’s a very small, almost minuscule percent of the population that has those opportunities, but women who do and are seizing those opportunities. These cyclists are revolutionary in the nature of the taboos that they’re breaking.
Do you think they feel the weight of responsibility? Do they feel they are doing something important for the next generation?
I think they realise that the more they bike, and the more that they are able to race outside their country and the more exposure they have, the more that that normalises bikes for other girls.
It starts to open up this sport for other women because it becomes the new normal and certainly the reason I am working with them – beyond the desire to see them succeed as racers and develop as a team – is that if we can normalise bikes within the context of the sport of cycling, then that means we can get girls on bikes to school, we can get women on bikes as midwives, and we can provide bikes to girls, giving them a means of independent travel and helping reduce their risk of encountering gender violence.
