Rukhsar Habibzai is the founder of Cheetah Cycling Club and captain of her nation’s first women’s cycling team, a group of ground-breaking women cyclists who were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016 for their bravery and courage in defying gender taboos in Afghanistan.
Born in the province of Ghazni, Habibzai was completing the dentistry programme at Cheragh Medical University located in Kabul when she was forced to leave her country as part of the mass evacuation of vulnerable citizens who faced targeted gender violence by the Taliban. Now living in Virginia, Habibzai is a dental assistant and joined the Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY24 Cycling Team in 2022.
The days that had arrived at my doorstep sounded and felt so familiar. Almost as if I have lived them before. Taliban had been gaining control of Afghanistan again. Every day, a province fell to its power. Hundreds of thousands of girls and women lose their fundamental human rights daily. Like my mother, people knew what was coming; many were reminiscing those miserable years when the Taliban first took power in 1994. There was a constant fear of bomb blasts more than ever before. Everyone contemplated escaping from the cold and merciless days and years approaching Afghanistan. No one wanted to flee their country, but the monsters that were to devour it soon.
I was on my way to university, I felt that maybe today would be the last day to go to my college, so I pulled out my mobile phone and took a video of my way to the university. It was 7:00 in the morning. I still have those videos and sometimes watching when I miss my homeland when I reach the university. My friend called me and said, “Where are you?” I told him I was in college, and he was shocked. He said, “But you know, the situation in Kabul is not good. We don’t know when the Taliban will take the country.” I was speechless and answered that no one could take our rights; seeking education is our right, and we will fight for our freedom. He said to take care of ourselves; the government’s condition is not good – stay home for some days. I went to my class, and everything was normal. My professor received a phone call and was silent for a few minutes. She then told us that her husband said some Taliban were seen in the city. Everyone was shocked, and everyone left the class. Three hours later, the Taliban took over the country.
I lived in a rental apartment in Kabul with my family. My father is a retired military man, and…
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