Flying Combat Missions as the First Female Afghan Pilot, Receiving the International Women of Courage Award, Flying with the Blue Angels, Avoiding Assassinations - Niloofar Rahmani

Combat Story

Ryan Fugit

History

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 14 October 2023

⏱️ 136 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This episode is brought to you by Nutrisense. Visit nutrisense.com/combat and get $30 off your first month and one month of board certified nutritionist support. When they ask how you learned about Nutrisense make sure to tell them it was the Combat Story podcast.

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This is a fantastic Combat Story unlike those we’ve hosted before as we welcome Niloofar Rahmani, Afghanistan’s first female aviator and someone who has overcome tremendous adversity to simply serve her country. This episode is a great reminder about how great we have it in America, what our involvement in Afghanistan meant to so many people like her, and what perseverance and sacrifice really look like for an individual and a family.

We’ve hosted so many guests who had challenges growing up with homelessness and absent parents yet somehow, despite the odds, found their way to the military. This story is likely the most challenging we’ve heard in terms of getting into uniform from exile and defying societal norms and is absolutely the most challenging we’ve ever heard when it comes to how difficult and dangerous it was to just wear a uniform and serve every day.

Niloofar would be the first many times as one of the first women recruited into the Afghan military, in flight school, to graduate, and event fly the C-130. She was awarded the US’ International Women of Courage of Award, met the first lady, flew with the Blue Angels and, eventually, was granted asylum in the United States.

She’s written a fantastic book about her experiences titled Open Skies: My Life as Afghanistan's First Female Pilot and she and her husband (an American veteran) opened a company called the Afghanistan Tribal Rug Trading Company where you can get rugs from Afghanistan while helping support the women who make them.

Despite the tragic fall of Afghanistan in 2021, Niloofar’s story has a happy ending and, as she’ll be the first to point out, is not finished being written. Although she didn’t say it, I suspect we’ll see her flying one day in an American uniform. Many thanks to former guest Ryan “Stinger” Fishel who got us in contact to make this interview happen and, with that, please enjoy this inspiring story from somebody who was truly a groundbreaker in her field.

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- Intro Song: Sport Rock from Audio Jungle
Find Niloofar Online:
- Open Skies My Life As Afghanistans First Female Pilot https://www.amazon.com/Open-Skies-Afghanistans-First-Female/dp/1641603348
- Afghanistan Tribal Rug Trading Co. https://www.afghanistantribalrugs.com/
- Learn more about Niloofar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niloofar_Rahmani

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Show Notes:
00:00 - Intro
00:55 - Guest Introduction (Niloofar Rahmani )
02:56 - Interview begins
03:20 - Mutual friend Ryan 'Stinger' Fishel
05:43 - First time in a Fighter Jet
08:18 - Favorite Movie
09:25 - Childhood
16:24 - Parents and struggle with War
21:29 - First aspiration to become a Pilot
25:21 - Family Cultural background
27:08 - Challenges growing up around the Taliban
32:10 - Nutrisense Ad
33:26 - Girl's School and Education
35:57 - What Niloofar would have done not being a Pilot
37:10 - Path to Aviation
44:26 - Qualifying to be a Pilot
01:00:05 - Training to be a Pilot
01:07:20 - First time solo flying
01:11:49 - Discrimination for being a Woman
01:29:05 - A difficult mission
01:32:29 - Sgrt. Mohammad
01:40:17 - International Woman of Courage Award
01:44:48 - Seeking asylum in the U.S.
02:08:30 - Sentimental items
02:09:48 - Afghanistan Tribal Rug Trading Co.
02:12:06 - Closing thoughts
02:13:00 - Listener comments and shout outs

Transcript

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0:00.0	And they were talking about the ISIS was north and the sad part was they said, oh, we can't afford lose more pilots because we had a couple of pilots they already got assassinated and just getting out of their doors in the house.
0:14.0	I would always carry a civilian clothes so if something goes wrong we would be able to just
0:19.2	change and run away and you know go somewhere in the village or you know nobody can recognize who I was
0:24.7	which is very upset to think about that not only you are afraid of what the
0:30.0	plane can do and what can go wrong I was more afraid of what if I get caught by the Taliban.
0:36.5	Welcome to Combat Story. I'm Ryan Fuggett and I serve war zone tours as an army
0:40.6	attack helicopter pilot and CIA officer over a 15 year career.
0:44.4	I'm fascinated by the experiences of the elite in combat.
0:47.8	On this show I interview some of the best to understand what combat felt like
0:52.0	on their front lines.
0:53.6	This is combat story.
0:55.5	Today we have a fantastic combat story, unlike many we've hosted before,
0:59.6	as we welcome Nilofar Romani,
1:01.8	Afghanistan's first female aviator, and someone who has overcome
1:05.4	tremendous adversity to simply serve her country.
1:09.2	This episode is a great reminder about how great we have it in America, what our involvement in Afghanistan meant to so many people like her,
1:15.8	and what perseverance and sacrifice really look like for an individual and a family.
1:20.3	We've hosted so many guests who had challenges growing up with homelessness, absent parents, and yet somehow, despite the odds, found their way to the military.
1:29.0	This story is likely the most challenging we've heard in terms of getting into uniform from exile and
1:35.2	define societal norms and is absolutely the most challenging we've heard when it comes to how difficult
1:40.5	and dangerous it was to just wear a uniform and serve every day.
1:44.3	Nilufar would be the first many times as one of the first women recruited into the Afghan
	...

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