TOP TO BOTTOM Nazira helps a friend onto the podium after Nazira won the women’s Afghan Ski Chal-lenge race. Nazima had won the event a year earlier, but fell during the 2021 competition, hurting her hand. Their father was also in at-tendance—the first time he’d ever watched a ski race. A skier with knitted mittens containing the colors of the former Afghan flag wears her bib showing her competitor’s number and confirming her place in the 2021 Afghan Ski Challenge. After the Taliban retook control of the country in August 2021, they raised a new black-and-white flag over the capital in Kabul. In early August, the Taliban took Nimruz Province. The next day, Jowzjan Province. I couldn’t believe it. My parents said they were worried it would be like 20 years ago. I was studying and working as a tour guide in Kabul. In a matter of weeks, they would be there as well. I was scared. I knew I had to leave. I hired a driver to take me to the Torkham border crossing into Pakistan, but the border was closed. Armed guards hit us. I cried the entire six hours back to the capital city. It was the strangest feeling of my life. I didn’t know what I was going back to. With the Taliban advancing, my sister and a group of Afghan skiers were able to get special Italian visas, leaving Kabul two weeks before the city fell. My friend Eva zu Beck, a travel blogger and film producer from Europe, helped me get a flight to Islamabad, Pakistan. The situation in Afghanistan has gotten worse each day. Under the Taliban, women aren’t allowed to work or study— and sports are out of the question. In Bamyan Province, girls are getting married to their relatives because they don’t want to get married with the Taliban. Thirteen, 14 years old. One of my ski friends said she was sad because her family wanted her to marry her cousin, that it would be safer that way. One woman from the national volleyball team has already been killed. Nowadays, even more are committing suicide. I used to be known for my athletic accomplishments. Now, I’m worried that that attention will get my family in trouble. My mother and father are still there and I’m trying to get them out. They had visas to Pakistan but were turned away at the border. I’ve been trying to go back, but my parents won’t let me. They say I’m their best hope and that I should try my best. Nothing is working. 076 The Ski Journal
The Ski Journal Volume 15, Issue 4: Page 76
