Niloofar Rahmani

Niloofar Rahmani (, born 1992) is the first female fixed-wing Air Force aviator in Afghanistan's history and the first female pilot in the Afghan Air Force since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Though her family received death threats, she persevered to complete her training and won the U.S. State Department's International Women of Courage Award in 2015.

Early life
Rahmani was born in Afghanistan in 1992. She and her family grew up as refugees in Pakistan, before returning to Kabul in 2000. Since she was a child, she had a dream of becoming a pilot and spent nearly a year studying English to be able to attend flight school.

Flight career
She enlisted in the Afghan Air Force Officer Training Program in 2010 and in July 2012 graduated as a Second Lieutenant. Throughout the program Afghan air force doctors attempted to deem her physically unfit to fly, and was the only female candidate in the program. Two female helicopter pilots during the Soviet era, the Nabizada sisters, along with her father, served as inspiration for Rahmani's achievement.

Her first solo flight was in a Cessna 182. Wanting to fly larger aircraft, she went to advanced flight school and was soon flying the C-208 military cargo aircraft. Women are traditionally banned from transporting dead or wounded soldiers; however, Rahmani defied orders when she discovered injured soldiers upon landing in one mission. Flying them to a hospital, she reported her actions to her superiors, who imposed no sanctions.

When her achievements were publicized, Captain Rahmani's family received threats from both family members and the Taliban, who disapproved of her ambition and career choices. The family has had to move several times but Rahmani was resolute and aimed to fly a larger C-130 plane and become a flight instructor to inspire other women. She began training on C-130s with the US Air Force in 2015 and completed the program in December 2016, following which she applied for asylum in the United States. Rahmani hoped to eventually become a military pilot for the United States Air Force.

Asylum
Rahmani was represented by International Attorney Kimberley Motley and was granted asylum in the U.S. in April 2018. She currently resides in Florida along with one of her sisters, who is attempting to gain asylum as well. However, she currently does not work in aviation but instead works as a translator for the Persian, Dari and English languages.