WEBVTT

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Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Katie Blake
and I'm Colin Lowva. Spotlight uses a

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special English method of broadcasting. It
is easier for people to understand no matter

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where in the world they live.
Zara Nouristani is an eighteen year old woman.

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She is wearing a traditional black headscarf
to cover her hair. She is

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also wearing a blue coat and trousers. On the back of her coat,

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there are large white letters. The
letters write the word Afghanistan. On this

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day, Nuristani is learning to rock
climb. The city of Kabul is behind

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her and far below. She hangs
off the side of the tall mountain.

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She holds a long rope in her
hands. Another rope is around her waist.

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Her feet press against the side of
a large rock. A man stands

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at the top of the mountain's edge. He shouts down at her. He

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is telling her how to lower herself
down safely. Luristani is worried, but

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slowly she begins to move down the
rock. Luristani is one of thirteen women

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learning to climb. They are Afghanistan's
first ever female rock climbing team. Today's

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Spotlight is on their team, Ascend
Afghanistan Nuristani's climbing team is part of an

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organization called ASCEND, Leadership through Athletics. Marina Lagrie started Ascend in twenty fourteen.

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Lagree is an aid worker from the
Uni States, but she lived and

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worked in Afghanistan for many years.
In two thousand and eight, Lagrie began

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working with an all women's basketball team
in Afghanistan. Before this, she did

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not know that Afghanistan had any women's
sports teams. She enjoyed the experience.

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However, she also recognized a great
need. Women wanted to play sports,

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but they did not have many resources
or coaches to teach them. In two

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thousand and nine, Lagree heard about
a team of climbers that climbed Afghanistan's highest

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mina. Two of the climbers were
Afghan men. They were the first Afghans

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to ever climb Mount Knoshak. This
was a great achievement. Lagree decided she

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wanted to help Afghan women achieve the
same honor, so Lagree began ASCEND.

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The goal was easy to train a
group of young Afghan women to climb the

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highest mountains in Afghanistan. However,
finding girls and young women to join the

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team was not as easy. Many
young women were interested in the program,

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but their families were not. For
many years, a political group called the

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Taliban ruled Afghanistan. Their laws restricted
women in many ways. Women could not

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work, drive, or go to
school, and they could not leave their

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homes without permission from a male family
member. The Taliban lost power in two

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thousand and one. Today women have
more freedom and more rights. However,

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Afghan culture is slower to change.
There is still conflict in Afghanistan with the

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Taliban. The Taliban still has influence. This conflict continues to restrict women's rights

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in the country. So when Lagree
and her team began looking for climbers,

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they struggled. Many families supported their
daughter's desire to mountain climb, but they

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worried about their daughter's safety. They
worried about the Taliban. Lagree and the

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Ascend workers took time to build trust
with many of the girls' families, and

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by the autumn of twenty fourteen,
they had gathered a team of thirteen young

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women. Today, the climbers are
between the ages of sixteen and twenty two,

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and they are excited about climbing.
Nagis Azarian is one of the older

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team members. She is also a
SENSE program coordinator. She told National Public

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Radio why she loves climbing. She
said, climbing feels amazing. It feels

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like you are just born and you
have a chance to rule the world.

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But learning to mountain climb is not
easy. The women have to run,

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climb, lift heavy weights, and
train hard. All of this is made

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more difficult because of a lack of
resources. The girls use old ropes and

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equipment, and they train in Kabul's
Ghazi Stadium. This sports arena is well

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known, but not for good reasons. The Taliban used to perform public killings

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in the stadium in the past.
Many women died there because they broke the

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Taliban's extreme laws. But even with
all these difficulties, the young women come

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to train every day. They understand
the importance of achieving such a major goal.

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They also come because Ascend provides the
girls with more than just training.

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Every Ascend climber also takes classes in
conflict resolution, leadership, and mental health.

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This may seem unusual, but mountain
climbing requires much more than physical strength

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and technical skill. Climbers must work
together during long and dangerous climbs. They

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must be able to solve problems in
extreme situations, and they must be able

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to lead when it is their turn. Assend wants to help these young women

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become leaders on and off the mountain. Rabia Noristani is another climber from the

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Ascend team. She is the younger
sister of Zara. From the beginning of

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this program, she talked with National
Public Radio about climbing and the progress they

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have made in the last year.
There is freedom there. The first time

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I climbed was really difficult. Someone
had to pull me up the mountain by

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my hand. Like Rabia, all
the young women have learned a lot.

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One year ago, many of them
had never climbed nimed a mountain, But

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on August sixth, twenty fifteen,
the women began their first major climbing trip.

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They had wanted to climb Afghanistan's highest
mountain, but there was fighting near

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the base of the mountain that made
it unsafe, so instead they climbed several

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mountains in northeast Afghanistan. These mountains
were more than five thousand meters tall.

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The women of Ascend climbed higher than
any Afghan women ever had before. Ascend

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is also proud of the achievements the
women have made away from the mountains.

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A few months before their climb,
team members spoke at a school. They

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talked to a class of sixteen and
seventeen year old girls. They told the

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girls about their goal to climb higher
than any other Afghan women, and they

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encouraged the students to work toward their
dreams even if they want to do something

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women do not normally do. Team
member Sahilia Hamidi said, can a woman

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become a law expert? Can a
woman become a parliament member? Can a

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woman become our president? The women
of Ascent have climbed higher than any Afghan

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woman before them, but now they
are also leading another generation of Afghan girls

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to achieve even more. The writer
of this program was Robin Basselin. The

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producer was Michio Ozarki. The voices
you heard were from the United States and

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the United Kingdom. All quotes were
adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight.

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You can listen to this program again
and read it on the internet at

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www dot Radio English dot net.
This program is called Female Climbers in Afghanistan.

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We hope you can join us again
for the next Spotlight program. Good Bye,