Actual messages from Afghan women cyclists on the ground needing evacuation read by Evacuation aid worker, Lien Johnson of OutrideBike.orgWords: Wade Wallace // Cycling TipsThey need our help, and the reasons are not necessarily obvious at first.
The 24 hour news cycle eats its young and will soon be moving on from the atrocities unfolding in Afghanistan since the Taliban reclaimed the country 32 days ago.
For a number of years, we’ve been inspired by Afghanistan’s women’s cycling team – and all Afghan cyclists, for that matter – and have covered them throughout that time. With the latest deteriorations in Afghanistan, they are in immediate need of the cycling community’s help.
For some it’s literally a matter of life and death. For others it could mean severe punishment and living out a life none of us can imagine. For everyone, it’s over a decade of progress that was wound back overnight.
Farid Noori runs the non-profit organisation MTB Afghanistan from his home in the United States which is building the culture of cycling in his home country, as well as helping with the infrastructure and programs needed to grow the sport and activity. With the overthrow of democracy in Afghanistan, overnight, Farid’s mandate changed to evacuating his country’s cyclists.
I spoke to Noori about what his vision is, why it’s important, and most of all, how the cycling community can help make meaningful change in the lives of these fellow
cyclists.
Wade Wallace: What’s your vision for cycling in Afghanistan through the work you do?
Farid Noori: The nonprofit [MTB Afghanistan] exists to serve young Afghans. We wanted to empower them. We wanted to improve their lives, and they’ve given a great deal. They embraced what we offered to them. Not only that, they were having fun but they were also promoting the values that we wanted to bring to the society, which was, create community, respect each other, promote gender equality.
As you know, 10 years ago, it was not even okay for women to ride bikes. These people, this small community of people were the early adopters of this change. They were actually promoting this. They were appearing in TV interviews after the races that we hosted, talking about their experience and painting this amazing egalitarian picture of Afghanistan.
When Kabul fell, when Afghanistan fell to the Taliban this summer, all of a sudden their lives were at risk because these people had been actively promoting all the ideals that the Taliban have now [shut down]. The actors who did all of these things are all of a sudden in danger.
WW: Can you paint a picture of what that means, in tangible terms, how this changes their lives practically overnight?
FN: It means that people burn their cycling clothes. It means that people hide their bikes and are hiding in safe houses. It means that from riding their bikes, all of a sudden they have to leave their beautiful, peaceful life in some remote village in Afghanistan and escape to Kabul with hopes of jumping on a plane like everyone else did, taking that risk with their lives in order to get out.
There’s no future for them now. There’s no hope for them. Their first need is safety. They don’t feel safe. It’s escaping from being imprisoned, living a life of imprisonment.
WW: Are there direct repercussions for what they’ve stood for and what you’ve all grown in this movement in Afghanistan? Are there direct threats that are related to that?
FN: They were high-profile. They were not famous people, but they appeared on TV and there are digital traces about these people. The Taliban have now banned sports for women across the board. And a lot of these women are still in Afghanistan. What they did in the past 20 years, that is now considered to be a sin, a crime.
There’s no orders yet, but the Taliban have made a lot of surprises in a very short period of time, regarding their atrocities. What they have done to a lot of people that they disliked. We’re talking about huge crimes against humanity.
WW: Tell me about the switch that you had to make in terms of what you did with MTB Afghanistan, to growing that to all of a sudden saving them. What did it mean for you and how you needed to act?
FN: Absolutely. It’s our responsibility. They obviously participated in our programs voluntarily. This is what they wanted to do. They helped propel our vision into the Afghan society. And now it is our responsibility to help them find safety, find happiness and be able to do… Safety is absolutely the first reason why we’re doing this, but the other one is they love riding bikes. I want them to live a life that is not imprisoned at home. I want them to be able to live a life that continues to make them happy through riding bikes.
WW: On the ground, what type of support does this fundraising enable, they’re obviously not just packing their bags, like you and me would to go to the airport. There’s a whole set of logistics and safety and probably back doors. How does that work?
FN: Before August 31st as the deadline neared, it became increasingly complicated. People couldn’t reach the gates. There were a lot of efforts to try to find people within the city. They would send buses, there were code words. There were colour-coded indicators that allowed guards to see these people in crowds. Some of the people that are now in the US were airlifted from a location in Kabul with a helicopter to the airport on the runway.
WW: Can you break down and put in tangible terms how the raised funds are being used?
FN: Yeah. So it is anything from having people airlifted – which I don’t think going forward we would need, we would put people in commercial flights to another location, but from there they would need to quarantine there for 14 days. We would have to pay for the cost of [that] and then to send people on another plane to the United States and then support them while they’re in a camp until their visa is processed. Provide them with basic things like clothing, internet and other needs that they need in the camp that is not provided by others. That’s the bulk of that $6,500, which is the figure [the cost information] we’re getting from our partner Human Rights Foundation.
The logistics is the biggest one. We have to rely on third parties for these flights. And there might be [the need for] legal help as well with the visas and everything. And so the base figure [MTB Afghanistan is targeting is] $250,000 for evacuation and to make sure that there’s a margin there for other expenses. And then [our] $500,000 goal is for resettlement.
The extra $250,000 there is helping them with rent in the first three to six months, helping them getting their basic needs and getting a start in life. If they wish to continue to ride bikes, we will do whatever it takes to make them feel at home both in terms of survival, but as cyclists continuing to support them – they’re obviously not carrying their bikes on these charter flights.
WW: What would you say to people who might say, ‘why are you helping female cyclists? Why not just anybody and everybody?’
FN: Well, I think that cyclists in Afghanistan did a lot to propel progress. It was a visible act of powerful protest … cycling was not banned but it was also not accepted, particularly for women. They risked their lives to be able to do the thing that they wanted to do – not just for themselves, not just for the love of the sport but for the love of the society. I have highlighted it in a couple articles. I’ve written about the risks, the lengths that people took to be able to exercise their basic freedom to ride a bike, basic human rights. And these are the individuals that … took these risks to be able to do this.
And now … their lives are at risk – at huge risk because they were women, [and] they were visible. They were in the news and everywhere they’re known.
I think that if they remained in Afghanistan, all the things that they wanted to fight for – be it having aspirations to race in the world stage, be it creating change for bringing equality in society – that will die. We can’t afford to have those dreams die.
These are highly aspirational people. These are very motivated people. We cannot let not only their lives face danger but also their dreams to have to be sentenced to death basically. I think that everyone who wants to get out of Afghanistan is equally [deserving], but I think it’s the responsibility of my organization and the cycling community in the world to help the people that we loved hearing about their bravery, that we loved reading about their playing against the odds, doing the impossible.
I think that it’s not only for them: it’s for us. We believe in the things that they believed in, and by helping them, it’s the least that we can do.
WW: Anything else you’d like to say?
FN: For me this is a life project. We live in this beautiful country. We have not had the mobility to go see other places, different people, different languages, [but] we’re an incredibly diverse country – and I think that’s what cycling could open, and everyone we’re trying to help believes in that too.
And we need the individuals who can envision a different country to be able to get out of it. … I may not live to see the vision that I wanted, but could we plant the seeds for that? And I think that the people who we are helping evacuate, and saving their lives – we would also save those dreams. Everyone wants to go back. Everyone wants to go back at the earliest opportunity. But how do you keep them alive? And by keeping them alive, how do you keep those dreams alive?
MTB Afghanistan’s goal is to raise $250,000 for evacuation of approximately 30 female cyclists to bring them to safety. Another $250,000 needs to be raised for resettlement. They have raised $99,000 so far.
Specialized Australia has also generously offered to match your donations dollar for dollar up to $10,000 (and has already contributed to this cause with a previous donation).
Together we can do this.
| No one has ever become poor by giving.—Anne Frank |
www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2021/09/13/trump-denies-releasing-5000-taliban-prisoners---but-his-administration-negotiated-for-their-release/amp
One of the faces of the group it seems like it may have successfully escape, as he recently posted "I'm back again and will start a new journey soon!"
The groups FB page also has a campaign goin on to rescue the rest of the members. Links:
www.betterplace.me/hilfezumneustart
www.facebook.com/Drop-and-ride-MTB-team-102037111414008
www.facebook.com/Asghar.freestyler
It is easy to blame our leaders that are in power now, but let`s not forget who started to empower the evil.
Our (western) failed foreign policy is now killing the future of w whole country.
Saddest article on PB.
Protection is a difficult thing to achieve, especially when trying to appease the enablers. By that I mean trying to be diplomatic and respect sovereignty. Not everyone plays the game fairly (or at all), and here we are.
Women are vastly more on equal footing in north american, granted, but that really isn't his point.
You do know that Afghanistan was a pleasant, beautiful, and increasingly egalitarian nation in 1979 just before the Soviet Union invaded and destroyed their culture. Were they "ready" then?
You really have no idea what you're talking about. The problem has far more to do with our opportunistic politicians than it is with the Afghan people's "readiness". Do you think you would be ready were it not for your comfy affluent life? These young women have only ever lived in a world where they could feel safe to be modern women, and then we all at once pulled the rug out from under them.
We are letting our politicians and policy makers abandon these people. What our government has done to Afghanistan over the past 90 days is despicable.
So the 'civilized world' should keep sending 18 year old kids to die for political war that started before their birth, while the people they involuntarily become martyrs for largely don't even care enough to join the fight? That sounds pretty uncivilized to me...
pb readers can't handle the truth
But then everything that happened after didn't help to convince them, more like the contrary.
I mate of mine set up a load of police stations in Iraq about 20 years ago. They would fit the stations out with desks and computers, install CCTV, provide guns & ammo and whatnot. Give them a week of training an then move up the valley to the next town or village to set up the next one. On the way back down a couple of months later they would check in with stations they had set up and find that there was only one police officer there, sitting with his feet on the desk watching TV. CCTV all turned off, half the ammo missing.
On asking where 80 rounds had gone in six weeks he found there had been a public holiday and the rounds had gone up in the air.
He said it was at that point he realised it was an absolute waste of time trying to make thousands of people from this culture into people of that culture. He went home, grew long hair and refused to cut it so he could GTFO of the army.
Looks like a similar thing has happened in Afghanistan. You cannot make beavers quack like ducks. Just leave them to be beavers FFS.
Biden has made absolutely the right decision by leaving them to it.
If people want to live their traditional way, let them get on with it.
An ethnically invisible hit squad should have been covertly deployed in Afghanistan to eliminate the perceived terrorist training threat. At least now we have a much better shot at training such a thing now we’ve extracted some handy local lads.
That was a different group, not the Taliban. The Taliban got their training in Pakistan.
i.imgur.com/JHpwgRa.jpg
An amazingly ironic line 40 years later.
People died and trillions spent for nothing.
Every leader in the 20 years is responsible for this.
Every person who is, Now affected or been involved in the last 20 years, should blame them.
Biden and his inept administration aren't even helping Americans and allies. Don't wait for help from them.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKNFOq5nN0A&t=181s
Follow me on the tictocs and pinstragrams for more seldomly used words.
app. $2,300,000,000,000 cost
Wonder what the plan was
I guess they could always fire more missiles at civilians.
I never for a moment put all the Afghan culture in one box. That’s a blatant lie on your part. Sound like an uneducated Trump supporter.
The only administration in the last 10 years to stop immigration visas was the Trump administration. Biden reversed that and hired more people to work on visa approvals. Biden isn’t a messiah, but has actually tried to help the people that don’t want help.
I’m extremely sensitive to culture, and if you knew me, you would feel like a fool for making up generalizations that are false. Someday people need to mature and realize that we aren’t the answer to the world’s political problems.
The Afghan visas have nothing to do with trump. Feel free to do your research and watch a documentary about how they have been fighting to get to the US under visas that were promised to them by Bush. Denied under Bush, denied under Obama, denied under Trump, denied under Biden. Sure, I mentioned Biden because of the silly shit you brought up about them having a year and a half to come to the US but not taking the opportunity. You most likely would like his old balls in your mouth as well.
You are interpreting the people being oppressed by the power of the taliban as saying that’s what they want. Which does in fact make you extremely ignorant to the situation on the ground.
A good example of this that you might understand is a wife you has been beaten by her husband. She stays because she is defeated and is trapped in a psychologically destructive power dynamic. She still supports her husband because she has lost herself.
The people of Afghanistan mostly want to survive. Additionally, the people in the rural cities are entirely different from those in the urban areas. In the village areas, the taliban has always had a support network. Similar to how ISIS use Sunni wahibi villages in western Iraq to support them, despite being the minority in the country, they were successful. There are also numerous ethnic groups in Afghanistan that have nothing to do with what you refer to as “the culture.” You literally group all people together as a monolith by referring to them as a culture. I get it, you’ve never lived amongst the people and have only watched documentaries. You know nothing.
So sure, you watched a documentary or two. You still don’t know shit and are are probably less educated about the matters than you were before you watched them.
They won't, remember when Michael Obama did the whole " bring our girls home" or something like that..
Nothing happened and unfortunately this will be the same
-elect guy who promises to get the f*ck out if elected
- said guy gets elected and gets the f*ck out
- blame said guy for getting the f*ck out
AMERICA f*ck YEAH!!
If you haven't worked it out yet, it's just in our nature. Religion is not the cause of, or solution to, problems that are fundamentally in our biology.
It's a good one to grind - most enduring one of recent millennia anyway.
For us blamers: Humans - big clever brains - always mistaking ourselves for supra-orbital omniscience.... no matter how vast or complex the issue.
Insert calamity - everyone yearning to point and blame and find witch to burn.
I'll be near last to support lack of accountability... But the desperate finger of blame needs use as judicious as one in the chocolate starfish
That's like saying, "We should call out PB users like iainmaclellan for not doing their own research, and devoting a portion of their annual income to support the cause". Here's the issue, people need to stop wasting time pointing fingers to call ANYBODY out, and start spending time focusing on a solution.
I was referring mostly to the fact that an aimless call out on a company that sponsors the video literally makes zero sense.
The last section of my statement you clearly missed. I will be more clear with my statement. Wasting time focusing on the cause of an issue without any focus on a solution is a significant waste of time.
What happened is no longer relevant, it's in the past. What can you do to fix it, that's the question everybody needs to be asking.
That being said, the fundamental reasoning for my initial post was simply based off the useless call out of a company that plays zero roll in the cause of the problem.