Fariba Hashimi wants to ride her bicycle through the streets of Kabul alongside other Afghan women. Two days after winning silver at the Asian Games in Japan, the 23-year-old cyclist has spoken about the dangers she faced simply trying to train in her home country.
Hashimi, who now lives and trains in Italy, described disguising herself as a man and covering her face to avoid recognition while cycling in Afghanistan. She said she sometimes faced attacks from people throwing stones.
Her account was reported by ABC News on Thursday, September 24, following her second-place finish in the women’s road race at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
Hashimi completed the race in two hours, 50 minutes and five seconds on September 22, finishing behind China’s Guo Li. Leung Wing Yee of Hong Kong took bronze.
The silver made Hashimi Afghanistan’s first female Asian Games medallist since the 2002 Busan Games, according to the Olympic Council of Asia.
But Hashimi’s ambitions extend beyond the medal she won in Japan. She hopes that women in Afghanistan will eventually be able to train, race and represent their country without facing the dangers she encountered.
Speaking after the race, she described her wish to return to Kabul and cycle through the city alongside other women who share her passion for the sport.
Hashimi began cycling in Afghanistan with her older sister, Yulduz. Both faced hostility while pursuing the sport in their home province of Faryab.
The sisters left Afghanistan following the Taliban’s return to power in 2021. With assistance from former world cycling champion Alessandra Cappellotto, they relocated to Italy, where they continued their sporting careers.
Both represented Afghanistan at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Hashimi’s silver in Japan is the latest result in a career that began with the sisters borrowing bicycles to enter a local race in Faryab in 2017.
The medal has also given her a platform to speak about the opportunities she wants future generations of Afghan women to have.
For Hashimi, that ambition remains closely tied to her home country. She hopes the day will come when she can return to Afghanistan and ride openly through Kabul without concealing her identity.
