Say Hello to Afghanistan’s First Female Paraglider
It’s not every day that a mother and resident of Afghanistan, a country not historically known for its female athletes, is hopeful to attend international paragliding events. But that’s precisely the case for Lida Huzoori, Afghanistan’s first female paraglider.
The first woman in Afghan society to join a paragliding team and mother of a three-year-old, Lida started paragliding just five years ago. Today, she is hopeful that she’ll be able to represent Afghanistan at international events.
A Family Affair
Lida’s brothers are her teammates and collectively form a small paragliding team in Kabul, the nation’s capital. But first, the sport is in need of major improvements in the country and government backing in order for its success to ever truly take off.
According to Huzoori, “We practice here together and learn together. We will be able to participate in international events if (the) government provides us the chance.”
Paragliding and Women
Women traditionally are under-represented in most risk sports, and paragliding has proved to be no exception. But given the fact that a 2016 report indicated that the adventure tourism market is growing at nearly 46 percent (adventure sports include kite surfing, hiking on mountains and glaciers, and of course, paragliding), there is little question about whether we can expect to see an uptick in the amount of women—and at the global level—participating in paragliding teams and competitions worldwide.
For now, we tip our hat to Lida Huzoori and look forward to seeing great things from her in the future!
