Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Katie Blake and I'm Colin Lowva. Spotlight uses a
special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no matter
where in the world they live. Zara Nouristani is an eighteen year old woman.
She is wearing a traditional black headscarf to cover her hair. She is
also wearing a blue coat and trousers. On the back of her coat,
there are large white letters. The letters write the word Afghanistan. On this
day, Nuristani is learning to rock climb. The city of Kabul is behind
her and far below. She hangs off the side of the tall mountain.
She holds a long rope in her hands. Another rope is around her waist.
Her feet press against the side of a large rock. A man stands
at the top of the mountain's edge. He shouts down at her. He
is telling her how to lower herself down safely. Luristani is worried, but
slowly she begins to move down the rock. Luristani is one of thirteen women
learning to climb. They are Afghanistan's first ever female rock climbing team. Today's
Spotlight is on their team, Ascend Afghanistan Nuristani's climbing team is part of an
organization called ASCEND, Leadership through Athletics. Marina Lagrie started Ascend in twenty fourteen.
Lagree is an aid worker from the Uni States, but she lived and
worked in Afghanistan for many years. In two thousand and eight, Lagrie began
working with an all women's basketball team in Afghanistan. Before this, she did
not know that Afghanistan had any women's sports teams. She enjoyed the experience.
However, she also recognized a great need. Women wanted to play sports,
but they did not have many resources or coaches to teach them. In two
thousand and nine, Lagree heard about a team of climbers that climbed Afghanistan's highest
mina. Two of the climbers were Afghan men. They were the first Afghans
to ever climb Mount Knoshak. This was a great achievement. Lagree decided she
wanted to help Afghan women achieve the same honor, so Lagree began ASCEND.
The goal was easy to train a group of young Afghan women to climb the
highest mountains in Afghanistan. However, finding girls and young women to join the
team was not as easy. Many young women were interested in the program,
but their families were not. For many years, a political group called the
Taliban ruled Afghanistan. Their laws restricted women in many ways. Women could not
work, drive, or go to school, and they could not leave their
homes without permission from a male family member. The Taliban lost power in two
thousand and one. Today women have more freedom and more rights. However,
Afghan culture is slower to change. There is still conflict in Afghanistan with the
Taliban. The Taliban still has influence. This conflict continues to restrict women's rights
in the country. So when Lagree and her team began looking for climbers,
they struggled. Many families supported their daughter's desire to mountain climb, but they
worried about their daughter's safety. They worried about the Taliban. Lagree and the
Ascend workers took time to build trust with many of the girls' families, and
by the autumn of twenty fourteen, they had gathered a team of thirteen young
women. Today, the climbers are between the ages of sixteen and twenty two,
and they are excited about climbing. Nagis Azarian is one of the older
team members. She is also a SENSE program coordinator. She told National Public
Radio why she loves climbing. She said, climbing feels amazing. It feels
like you are just born and you have a chance to rule the world.
But learning to mountain climb is not easy. The women have to run,
climb, lift heavy weights, and train hard. All of this is made
more difficult because of a lack of resources. The girls use old ropes and
equipment, and they train in Kabul's Ghazi Stadium. This sports arena is well
known, but not for good reasons. The Taliban used to perform public killings
in the stadium in the past. Many women died there because they broke the
Taliban's extreme laws. But even with all these difficulties, the young women come
to train every day. They understand the importance of achieving such a major goal.
They also come because Ascend provides the girls with more than just training.
Every Ascend climber also takes classes in conflict resolution, leadership, and mental health.
This may seem unusual, but mountain climbing requires much more than physical strength
and technical skill. Climbers must work together during long and dangerous climbs. They
must be able to solve problems in extreme situations, and they must be able
to lead when it is their turn. Assend wants to help these young women
become leaders on and off the mountain. Rabia Noristani is another climber from the
Ascend team. She is the younger sister of Zara. From the beginning of
this program, she talked with National Public Radio about climbing and the progress they
have made in the last year. There is freedom there. The first time
I climbed was really difficult. Someone had to pull me up the mountain by
my hand. Like Rabia, all the young women have learned a lot.
One year ago, many of them had never climbed nimed a mountain, But
on August sixth, twenty fifteen, the women began their first major climbing trip.
They had wanted to climb Afghanistan's highest mountain, but there was fighting near
the base of the mountain that made it unsafe, so instead they climbed several
mountains in northeast Afghanistan. These mountains were more than five thousand meters tall.
The women of Ascend climbed higher than any Afghan women ever had before. Ascend
is also proud of the achievements the women have made away from the mountains.
A few months before their climb, team members spoke at a school. They
talked to a class of sixteen and seventeen year old girls. They told the
girls about their goal to climb higher than any other Afghan women, and they
encouraged the students to work toward their dreams even if they want to do something
women do not normally do. Team member Sahilia Hamidi said, can a woman
become a law expert? Can a woman become a parliament member? Can a
woman become our president? The women of Ascent have climbed higher than any Afghan
woman before them, but now they are also leading another generation of Afghan girls
to achieve even more. The writer of this program was Robin Basselin. The
producer was Michio Ozarki. The voices you heard were from the United States and
the United Kingdom. All quotes were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight.
You can listen to this program again and read it on the internet at
www dot Radio English dot net. This program is called Female Climbers in Afghanistan.
We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight program. Good Bye,