Fariba Hashimi becomes Afghanistan’s first Asiad medallist in women’s cycling

When Fariba Hashimi’s father first saw her attempting to ride a bicycle, his immediate fear for her was not injury from a fall. It was what might happen to her if somebody else got a whiff of it in the orthodox Afghan society.

But the stoic father decided her dreams were bigger than his fears and last week, she became the first Afghan woman to medal in an Asian Games cycling event by clinching the road race silver in Aichi-Nagoya. It also made Hashimi her country’s first female Asian Games medallist since 2002.

For Hashimi, the medal around her neck was not merely a reward for racing 2 hours and 50 minutes on a course. It was a reminder of the stones thrown at her, the men’s clothes she wore to train, the fear her father carried every time she rode outside and the country she was forced to leave behind when the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

“Fariba doesn’t want to go alone. Fariba wants to have other Faribas from the country,” Hashimi, who is now based in Italy, told PTI in an interview.

“I’m really hoping someone can come from inside the country outside, and that will be one of my big dreams in Los Angeles Olympics. Of course, I keep training a lot and I’m doing my best to perform well and to get a qualification for Los Angeles,” the 23-year-old said.

The achievement came five years after she fled Afghanistan following the Taliban’s return to power and amid restrictions that have severely curtailed women’s rights and opportunities. But Hashimi’s cycling story began long before she reached Italy, and at a time when simply riding a bicycle in her home country could put her in harm’s way.

“When I was young, I never touched a bike, I never rode a bike,” she recalled, saying she heard about a women’s cycling race after her sister came across it on social media.

“In the country where I was born, in my culture, I didn’t see women cycling. I didn’t see women playing football. It’s not open to my culture to do those things,” she said.

The sisters eventually began riding, but Hashimi had to conceal her identity. She would dress as a man while going out for training, sometimes at night, in an effort to avoid being recognised.

Her account of those days includes stones and bottles being thrown at her and even attempts to hit her with cars.

“Most of the time, I used to have this idea from my father to put on men’s clothes to go outside for training during the night. The people cannot recognise me that way,” Hashimi said.

“Sometimes when they recognised me, they became really aggressive with me.”

Yet if cycling gave Hashimi a dream, it also gave her father a dilemma. Initially worried about what society would do to his daughter, he eventually chose to stand with her.

“When I saw my father, I escaped inside the room,” Hashimi recalled of the day he caught her training on a small children’s three-wheeled bicycle at home. “He just looked at my face and he said, ‘I’m scared, actually. I’m scared of what will happen tomorrow for you’.”

But then came the words that changed everything.

“He said, ‘I don’t want to stop what you want to do. You are a person, you got the same dream. If men can do, of course, women can as well’.”

Her father had studied outside Afghanistan and had seen women riding bicycles and participating freely in activities that remained difficult for women in his own country.

When the Taliban returned to power in 2021, Hashimi said she had little choice but to leave.

“I escaped because I had a dream. I escaped because I know what will happen to me,” she said.

“With the Taliban moved in my country, I escaped my country. I didn’t choose. I want to go outside the country for a different life.”

She was helped by former world champion Alessandra Cappellotto, and the move eventually gave her the opportunity to pursue cycling professionally. Both Hashimi sisters later competed at the Paris Olympics.

The separation from home, however, remains painful.

“It is sad that I can’t live in my country,” Hashimi said.

Her Asian Games medal therefore became much more than a sporting achievement.

When she finished the race, her father and family tried calling her more than 400 times. He eventually reached her while she was preparing for the podium, press conference and anti-doping formalities.

“He was emotional and crying,” Hashimi recalled.

“He just told me, ‘You did a history, not only for you. For the million of women, they have the same dream like you’.”

“He was full of emotion. He couldn’t speak with me. He kept crying. My mother, my brothers, my sister kept crying.”

For Hashimi, however, the medal belongs to a much larger group than her family.

Her hope is that Afghan women will one day be able to pursue their dreams without having to leave their country.

“I’m really hoping that in the future, at least the women can go to school. Women can have a right to talk, to have a voice and to choose what they can be in the future,” she said.

And despite building her cycling career in Italy, Hashimi has no intention of changing the flag she rides for.

“I’m a proud Afghan and I’m from Afghanistan. I want to represent my country in the world,” she said.

“I had a chance to represent as a refugee athlete, but I want to represent my country. I want to represent my country’s flag all the time.”

Her final ambition is therefore not simply qualification for another Olympics. It is to make sure that the road she had to travel alone becomes easier for those who follow.

“We will keep pushing together until our next generation is not going to cry for their dream, not getting attacked for their dream, not getting stopped for their dreams. That will be one of my dreams.”