Mon, Nov 12, 2018 page10

• Afghan woman first to scale peak

  • The Guardian
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  In a quiet corner of Kabul, a dozen young women welcome their friend back from the summit of Afghanistan’s highest mountain. Like many Afghan women, Hanifa Yousoufi had always been made to believe that she should not go to school or play sports. Yet the 24-year-old has become the first Afghan woman to climb Mount Noshaq.

  The young women gathered here are among the 70-strong cohort meeting six days a week to learn the art of climbing, something many never imagined that they would have a chance to do.

  Yousoufi explains that because her family are illiterate, there was no encouragement for her to get an education. Instead, she worked as a cleaner to help support the family.

  “I used to watch other girls in their school uniforms going to school, and I wanted to go,” she said. “But I would just think: ‘No, Hanifa, you are not clever like them. Even if you tried, you are not on their level.’ But also, I wanted to stay home and support my family and for my father to feel better about life — he was always working.”

  A friend introduced Yousoufi to Ascend Afghanistan, run by US organization Ascend Athletics. When she joined the group in 2016, she had never heard of a crampon — or even attempted a sit-up. Yet, last year, she ran a marathon, and after months of training, she became part of a small team preparing to tackle Noshaq.

  Climbing in Afghanistan is risky, not just because of the dangers involved, but because active insurgency is still a constant threat. The day before the team set off, the Taliban launched an attack nearby, almost scuttling the attempt.

  “I was nervous because of the fighting so close by,” said Yousoufi, who suffered frostbite in one of her toes and altitude sickness during the expedition. “I was so tired and didn’t think I would be able to make it down, but I was so determined.”

  The program was founded in 2015 by Marina LeGree, who had previously worked for development organizations in Afghanistan for several years, and was employed by NATO at the height of the war.

  LeGree said that witnessing the relentlessly disparaging way in which Afghan women are treated by men was the impetus for a program that targets empowerment through mountaineering and leadership training.

  In 2015, the first women to attend the program, aged 15 to 22, completed a 17-day trek, taking in three of the region’s highest peaks, all taller than 4,876m.

  The girls all look up to project coordinator Freshta Ibrahimi, LeGree said.

  Coming from an illiterate family, Ibrahimi has experienced extreme poverty and understands from bitter personal experience the challenges that the girls go through.

  Yousoufi trekked to base camp with Ibrahimi, as well as another teammate and two guides, including Norwegian Vibeke Sefland, who reached the summit with her.

  For Yousoufi, the trek was as much about striking a blow for gender equality in a society dominated by men as it was about scaling the second-highest mountain in the Hindu Kush.

  “Climbing Noshaq was much harder than the other mountains I’d climbed,” she said. “But I kept telling myself that finally this was the moment an Afghan girl was going to make it to the top. I did this for every single girl. The girls of Afghanistan are strong and will continue to be strong.”
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