Mohadese Mirzaee was Afghanistan’s first woman to become a commercial pilot and made history. But her life has also been marked by narrow escapes, new beginnings and an unwavering commitment to women’s rights.
The passengers couldn’t believe their eyes as they approached the plane, about to board for the flight to Kandahar. A window in the cockpit was open. When they saw who was sitting behind the controls, some of them laughed. Others asked, ‘Who is the pilot?’ ‘Why is there a girl sitting in the cockpit?’ One passenger stood in front of the aircraft and said, ‘I’m not flying with you! Change the pilot and bring a man!’
Mohadese Mirzaee, the co-pilot in the cockpit, had been used to encountering scepticism since childhood as she tried to realise her dream of flying. Against all odds, she became Afghanistan’s first woman commercial pilot and made history.
As a child, she flew with her family on vacation. The Airbus A340, with its four engines, was enormous — as was young Mohadese’s enthusiasm. The desire to fly a plane herself arose in an instant. She had no idea how she could achieve this, but her mother supported her. ‘She knew how important a good education is — and how important it is to pursue a dream,’ says Mohadese, now 27 years old.
On her 16th birthday, her mother gave her a special surprise: Mohadese was allowed to visit an airfield in Afghanistan and have a good look around. She got talking to a few pilots, who didn’t think much of the visitor’s enthusiasm. ‘You’re too small’, they told her. And: ‘Women don’t have enough strength to fly a plane.’ Mohadese gave up on her plan — but only temporarily.
She spent her last year of school on an exchange programme in Canada. That’s where her interest in flying finally became serious. Although she suffered from a fear of heights, she wanted to test herself. In Toronto, she took her first trial flight with a flight instructor. After take-off, she was allowed to fly the two-seater aircraft on her own for the first time. It was the moment she made her decision: she definitely wanted to become a pilot.
She took her first flying lessons in Canada, which she was only able to finance by working full-time — at McDonald’s, Walmart and as a barista. She stayed for another year, then had to return to Afghanistan, partly because her residence permit was about to expire.
What had begun in Canada ended abruptly in Afghanistan because there was no flight school. Mohadese contacted various airlines such as Kam Air and Ariana, trying to join a trainee programme — or somehow continue her training. ‘I got some very interesting responses from many departments,’ she recalls. ‘Why do you want to be a pilot?’ ‘You’re a woman!’ ‘Go home.’ ‘Get married.’ ‘Have children.’ She didn’t give up.
She kept asking for seven months. Finally, Kam Air invited her for an interview — and she convinced them. The airline sent her to the Philippines for training. Mohadese was on her way to becoming a professional pilot. But only a quarter of all flight students usually complete the difficult training. Mohadese succeeded. In September 2020, she became Afghanistan’s first commercial woman pilot, flying to Türkiye, Saudi Arabia, India and many Afghan provinces.
‘I also wanted to become a pilot to show girls that they can realise their dreams.’ (Mohadese Mirzaee)
She was quite nervous on her first flight as co-pilot of a Boeing 737 passenger plane. Sitting next to her was a captain she didn’t know. Her hands were shaking a little; she wanted to be perfect — not to make any mistakes. Shortly before take-off, she looked at the captain and noticed that his hands were also shaking a bit. As Mohadese recalls: “I said to him, ‘Look, this is my first flight. Of course I’m nervous. But why are you shaking?’” The pilot smiled and looked at her. Then he said, ‘This is also my first flight with a woman. I just don’t know what to expect from you.’
It was one of many moments and challenges that had to be overcome. But eventually, all the pilots and crews knew they could rely on Mohadese. Finally, it was no longer about being a man or a woman; she had simply become one pilot among many.
‘I had waited my whole life for this moment.’
Then came 21 February 2021. It was supposed to be a normal working day for her. But Kam Air flight 104 — a 90-minute Boeing 737 flight from Kabul to Herat in the west of the country and back again — made headlines in Afghanistan and later around the world. Mohadese was in the cockpit as first officer, alongside her Ukrainian colleague Veronika Borisova as captain. The other four crew members were also women. It was the first flight in Afghanistan’s history with an all-female crew.
‘I had waited my whole life for this moment,’ Mohadese recalls. ‘Afghan women can fly, women can fly — they can make their dreams come true. It was a big moment, not just for me; it was big for our country, for all women.’
A video of the flight was released on 8 March 2021, International Women’s Day. It went viral, and Mohadese received countless messages from Afghan girls who wanted to emulate her and become pilots themselves.
The world looks spellbound at Kabul
A few months later, the situation in the country changed dramatically. On 15 August 2021, the world watched Kabul with bated breath: in a matter of hours, what had been built up over 20 years crumbled. After 2001, there had been a new constitution and elections. Women had returned to parliament, girls had returned to school, and civil society had flourished.
But on 15 August 2021, the Taliban were once again at the gates of Kabul and suddenly fear reigned once more — just weeks before the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the event that led to the US invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 and the fall of the Taliban. President Ashraf Ghani fled the country in a hurry.
Mohadese was scheduled to fly to Istanbul that day, as usual. She made her way to the airport, wearing her uniform. She had no idea that events would unfold so rapidly — but when she reached the airport, some things seemed extremely strange.
She reported for duty at the Kam Air office, then went through airport security. Suddenly, the airline called her again and told her to come back to the office. There, she immediately noticed that chaos had broken out. Employees were running around frantically, hurriedly gathering papers and trying to get signatures. She was still unaware of what was going on, and people tried to calm her down.
She went back to the security checkpoint — but there was no one there anymore. A fellow pilot and Mohadese looked at each other. ‘Is this normal?’ the pilot asked her. Both began to feel afraid. They continued towards the runway and their plane. Suddenly, they saw people jumping over the security fences: hundreds stormed the runway, running towards their plane, some clinging to the wings. Mohadese didn’t even try to get on the plane anymore.
In a single second, Mohadese had to decide her future
Then she received a final call from the airline. The Taliban were already in the city and on their way to the airport. ‘Try to get out of here!’ they told her. ‘Fly away from here!’ Suddenly, a colleague from the ground crew happened to drive past her and her colleague in a van. ‘Get in now!’ he shouted. He took as many people as he could in his minibus — colleagues, air traffic controllers, friends — and dropped them off in front of a plane parked at the very end of the runway.
In a single second, Mohadese had to decide her future. Should she stay in Kabul, or get on the plane? She was afraid of the Taliban, partly because her story had been widely reported. At the same time, she worried about her family — her mother and two sisters. She got on the plane.
But the pilot was still missing. They said the captain was still stuck in the office. Everyone sat in the plane, waiting to see what would happen. The ground crew urged them to hurry. There were only five minutes left to get the plane ready for take-off. ‘If you don’t move now, we’re leaving!’ said the ground crew.
The pilot reached the plane at the last minute. It was Mohadese’s colleague, Veronika Borisova, from the first flight with an all-female crew. Take-off preparations began in a hurry. The tension in the plane grew; no one knew whether take-off could still be successful. Air traffic control in the tower was no longer responding.
The plane rolled out and made its way to the runway. Meanwhile, the Taliban had already reached it. Fear grew in the aircraft, as no one knew whether they would fire on the plane.
Mohadese looked outside once more. A fellow pilot from the Netherlands, sitting next to her, pulled down the sun visor as the aircraft rolled onto the runway. ‘He hugged me and just said, “This is not what you should remember.”’ Then her colleague Veronika in the cockpit applied thrust. A few seconds later, they were over Kabul.
The plane finally landed in Kyiv, and the Ukrainian authorities were surprised that an aircraft from Afghanistan had arrived in their country. The world had not yet fully realised that the Taliban had taken Kabul. Mohadese and some other passengers were not allowed to enter the country.
So, on the same day, she travelled on from Kyiv to Sofia. Mohadese had a visa because she had completed her simulator training in Bulgaria. Once there, she didn’t know where to go or what to do next; she felt lost.
Apart from her uniform, she had nothing. Friends helped her, finding accommodation and normal clothes. She still had hope of returning to her homeland. Three months passed, her visa was about to expire, and the airline simply told her: ‘We want to help you, but we can’t. You’re on your own.’
‘Afghan women are known for their courage’
She searched the internet to find out what she could do in her new situation. One of the search results was the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Sofia. She contacted the UN office, not really expecting a response. ‘I never thought I would ever become a refugee. And I was afraid of what would happen.’ After two days, Mohadese received a reply from UNHCR. She was invited to the office and informed about how she could apply for asylum in Bulgaria.
But it remained a time full of obstacles — not only because of cultural and language barriers. She had lost everything and felt deeply lonely. ‘It took me a long time to gradually get over it — a good seven months. But I took a saying very seriously: Afghan women are known for their courage, strength and resilience. I told myself this in front of the mirror, ‘You are an Afghan girl. And you are strong. You have been through a lot, you even made your dreams come true and flew. You want to go back there.’
A promise to herself
She wrote down everything she needed to do to be able to fly again. ‘I made a promise to myself: I will fly again on 15 August 2022. In exactly one year — on the very day I lost everything.’
Writing it all down on a few pages of paper is one thing. Achieving it is another. She needed a residence permit; her pilot’s licences had to be reissued; and she had to take new exams. The list grew longer and longer. But she pursued her path unwaveringly. ‘I wanted to reclaim my dreams.’
Returning to the skies remained difficult. She sent out numerous applications, and her Afghan passport — which is subject to more restrictions than any other passport in the world — was also an issue. But she kept the promise she had made herself. And it was a pinpoint landing: when 15 August 2022 rolled around, she was finally back in the cockpit — exactly one year after her escape from Afghanistan.
She felt relieved: ‘I remembered all the steps I had to take, all the struggles. But this time I didn’t tremble in the cockpit; I was determined. The greatest feeling, however, was to feel that I was free again.’
Mohadese currently flies for a cargo airline. She continues to support various UN entities such as UNHCR and UN campaigns, speaks at universities and schools about women’s rights and the empowerment of women, and meets with refugees. She also participated in the Global Refugee Forum (GRF) in Geneva in 2023, the world’s largest international meeting in support of refugees and host communities.
Mohadese remains in contact with friends back home, despite all obstacles. Her mother and two sisters were also able to leave Afghanistan. And although the situation for women is going from bad to worse since the Taliban regained power, she warns against giving up hope: ‘Women must try to be united; try to educate themselves as best they can. The current situation will not last. There will be changes, and the day will come when women will be free again and part of Afghan society.’