{"id":156936,"date":"2023-04-28T19:57:21","date_gmt":"2023-04-28T19:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/af.dawatmedia24.com\/?p=156936"},"modified":"2023-04-28T20:09:37","modified_gmt":"2023-04-28T20:09:37","slug":"shes-jetting-around-europe-but-this-history-making-pilot-dreams-of-afghanistans-skies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/af.dawatmedia24.com\/?p=156936","title":{"rendered":"She\u2019s jetting around Europe. But this history-making pilot dreams of Afghanistan\u2019s skies"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At age 21, an unlikely dream came true in Afghanistan for Mohadese Mirzaee, who did part of her training at Billy Bishop airport in Toronto. It wouldn\u2019t last.<\/span><\/h4>\n<\/header>\n
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\"Ehsanullah<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
By\u00a0<\/span>Ehsanullah Amiri<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Staff Reporter<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Sorce: thestar.com<\/a><\/div>\n
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Sun., April 23, 2023<\/span><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
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For months, she soared through\u00a0Afghanistan\u2019s\u00a0skies. She made civil aviation history by flying inside the country with all-female crews.<\/p>\n

At age 21, Mohadese Mirzaee\u2019s dream came true.<\/p>\n

She became Afghanistan\u2019s first female commercial flight pilot, taking passengers in a Boeing 737 to different Afghan cities as well as Turkey, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia and India.<\/p>\n

Her dream came crashing down a year later, on Aug. 15, 2021, the day that Kabul fell to the Taliban. When the extremist Islamic group known for its\u00a0anti-women policies\u00a0returned to power, she was in her uniform at the airport, planning her evening flight to Istanbul, Turkey.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was in the airport, the Taliban had already attacked Kabul, and they were inside the city,\u201d recalled Mirzaee, now 24. Residents and security personnel were desperate to flee. \u201cWhen I got into the plane that I was supposed to fly, I see people rushing, everyone was running to the plane,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She left behind her family that day, fleeing the country \u2014 this time as a passenger \u2014 on an evacuation flight to Kyiv until her employer Kam Air, Afghanistan\u2019s largest private carrier, assessed the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey denied my entry,\u201d she said, referring to the Ukrainian airport authorities in Kyiv. \u201cThen they checked my passport. I had to a visa for Bulgaria, since we always had that for the training. They said, \u2018You have to go to Bulgaria because you have the visa, and we cannot accept you.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mohadese<\/div>\n
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Mirzaee\u2019s childhood dream of flying had hit a stumbling block in 2015 when she went to a military base of the then-U.S.-backed Afghanistan army to apply for pilot training but a commander told her, \u201cYou\u2019re so young. You don\u2019t have enough muscles.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot fly, and why are you thinking about flying? Think about something else,\u201d she recalls being told.<\/p>\n

The refusal, not surprising in a male-dominated country, didn\u2019t deter her.<\/p>\n

In 2016, she went abroad to do her last year\u2019s class at a high school in Port Colborne, Ont. \u201cWhen I came to Canada and started searching, I saw it was such a normal thing for the women to fly.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she finished school, Mirzaee attended the aviation academy at Toronto\u2019s Billy Bishop airport, and practised flying a Cessna 172.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was quite expensive,\u201d she said, talking about the fees for each training flight. \u201cI remember every hour of the flight was around $300.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being on a student visa, she could not get senior jobs; instead, she worked at Tim Hortons, McDonald\u2019s, as a cashier at Walmart and receptionist in a dental clinic to pay for training flights.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny job you can name it I was working, just to be able to pay for my flight training, to pay for my courses.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2018, she returned to Afghanistan to persuade the state-run and private airlines to sponsor her to continue further training. She got rejected multiple times.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t give up quickly, so I was pretty annoying. I was giving them calls every day,\u201d she said, referring to officials from the Kam Air private airline.<\/p>\n

They finally relented. \u201cI had meetings, interviews and exams before starting the program. After I passed all those exams and interviews, they supported and funded my training,\u201d said Mirzaee. The program was full-time integrated pilot training in the Philippines for 18 months.<\/p>\n

Later, she attended three months of training on the Boeing 737, in Bulgaria, where her visa was valid until she escaped from Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

To Mirzaee, August is an \u201ceventful month.\u201d Her first commercial flight was on Aug. 20, 2020; she lost her job in Afghanistan with the fall of Kabul in the same month, the following year. In August 2022, she got her European pilot certificate after passing several exams in Bulgaria.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s always interesting when I go to the airports and pass through the security check. They see me in the uniform, and then they check my passport. They say \u2018you\u2019re from Afghanistan,\u2019 \u201d she said. Responding to their surprised looks, she responds, \u201cYes, I\u2019m from Afghanistan, and I say it proudly.\u201d<\/div>\n

\u201cNow I\u2019m flying for another European company, which is quite fun,\u201d she said from her hotel in Italy, where she was on vacation. \u201cI\u2019m in different cities every day, so I cannot complain. I\u2019m quite happy about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her family safely resettled in Canada, including her mother, who supported Mirzaee in achieving her dream.<\/p>\n

As the Taliban places more restrictions on women, including banning girls from high school and working\u00a0in NGOs and the United Nations offices, she claims those barriers cannot stop Afghan women.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it\u2019s a proud moment. I didn\u2019t give up. Even though the Taliban did everything to put us down and take us away,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

And she added: \u201cGoing back to Afghanistan and flying back, there is always the option\u201d after the Taliban are gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always remember the days that I was flying there as sweet memories. I\u2019m hoping and looking forward to that day when Afghanistan will finally be peaceful.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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At age 21, an unlikely dream came true in Afghanistan for Mohadese Mirzaee, who did part of her training at Billy Bishop airport in Toronto. It wouldn\u2019t last. By\u00a0Ehsanullah Amiri Staff Reporter Sorce: thestar.com Sun., April 23, 2023 For months, she soared through\u00a0Afghanistan\u2019s\u00a0skies. She made civil aviation history by flying inside the country with all-female […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":156937,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5091],"class_list":["post-156936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-mohadese-mirzaee"],"yoast_head":"\nShe\u2019s jetting around Europe. 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