'I'm scared for my life': First Afghan female pilot in the country's military since fall of the Taliban who defied death threats to take to the skies seeks asylum in the US

Afghanistan's first female pilot to serve in the air force since the fall of the Taliban has applied for asylum in the United States.
Capt. Niloofar Rahmani told the Wall Street Journal: 'I would love to fly for my country — that is what I always wanted to do. But I'm scared for my life.'

Rahmani, 25, has defied death threats from the Taliban and even members of her own extended family to become the first female fixed-wing Air Force aviator in Afghanistan's history and the first female pilot in the Afghan military since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

She was honored with the US State Department's International Women of Courage Award in 2015.
Her bio on the department's page listing the 2015 award winners says: 'Captain Rahmani was only 18 years old when she heard an announcement in the media about the recruitment of young women into the Afghan Air Force, including the opportunity for pilot training.
'Soon after, she enlisted in officer training and graduated as a Second Lieutenant.
'In July 2012 – just two years after hearing the recruitment announcement – Captain Rahmani graduated from flight school and completed her first solo flight in September in a Cessna 182, an American four-seat, single-engine light airplane.'

According to the State Department, 'She continued to expand her skills and challenge all odds when she graduated from advanced flight training and became qualified to fly a C-208 military cargo aircraft.
'Unfortunately, after her story was publicized, Captain Rahmani and her family began to receive threats from the Taliban and from members of her extended family, who disapproved of her career and ambition.
'As a result, her family has had to take tremendous caution and relocate several times in Afghanistan.'

Threats have led her immediate family to relocate three times since Rahmani went to the United States, according to the newspaper.
Her attorney Kimberly Motley told the Journal: 'There are great concerns for her safety if she returns. The threats she has received have been well documented.
'Unfortunately, some of her superiors within the Afghan military have failed in their duty to protect her.'
She traveled to the United States last summer for C-130 transport plane training with the US Air Force in Arkansas which finished on Thursday - and was supposed to return Saturday, yet did not, the Journal reported.

An Afghan air force spokesman told the Journal pilots have to come back after finishing training elsewhere. 
Rahmani told the newspaper that if she gets asylum, she'll fly with the US Air Force or commercially.
She previously told WTKR: 'You can't just see yourself as a woman, but as a human and believe in yourself. 
'It was not easy finishing flight school, it was very hard, but someone had to accept the risk so that other women can do what they dream.'

(culled from www.dailymail.co.uk)