Afghan Women Racers

[Tech72]

Against the odds....

Kudos to these athletes.

http://widerimage.reuters.com/story/afghanistans-women-racers?utm_campaign=web-share&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter

 

[BeachyKeen]

They're pretty badass. It sucks that they have to put up with so much **** for it though. Like the captain getting grabbed by a guy on a motorbike :/

 

[CAMPYBOB]

How long before ISIS, al Qaeda, Taliban, shia-if-suuni or sunni-if-shia kill them in the name of god?

Against the odds, indeed.

 

[DancingLady]

Those are some very couragous women. I hope they are able to stay safe in spite of their circumstances. The orld needs to be more aware of what women go through in some countries in order to be part of things we consider normal in the western world.

 

[Damien Lee]

Well done to these women cyclists. They truly have it difficult in those middle eastern countries, as far as having any rights (unlikely) to express themselves as they see fit. I hope nothing bad happens to them, religious fundamentalists of any kind have always frightened me.

 

[ZXD22]

Amazing athletes and I give them a lot of credit. They have done the impossible and I can't think of too many cyclists that could top what they have done. Takes hard work and dedication!

 

[BikeBikeBikeBike]

It wasn't very long ago that Afghanistan was a fairly modern nation.
Look up what Afghanistan was like in the 1970's.
I read this story a few days ago when it popped up on Reddit.
I also remember reading a similar story about skateboarding and bodybuilding in Afghanistan.

It's sad how we royally screwed up this place. When I say "we" I am referring to us here in the self-righteous yet short sighted West.
After the 1979 invasion by the soviets we had this great idea of empowering the Islamic fundamentalists to fight against the soviets. We teamed up with our friends over in Saudi Arabia to provide training and arms. The Kingdom also decided to export it's own brand of militant extremist Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism. But who cares, as long as the soviets get defeated these people will probably never be a problem to us. . . We were not really concerned that after the Russians were pushed back that the new leaders of Afghanistan were causing the nation to descend backwards at a record pace. Wasn't really a problem until a Osama took out the World Trade Centre.
Of course after that we all learned a very good lesson about empowering Islamic fundamentalism and the global negative consequences of mucking around in the middle east without a clue and an exit strategy.
Oh wait! We didn't! Now we have ISIS to contend with.

I would say that our leaders should pay attention more to history so they don't repeat it's mistakes. But honestly I think they fully know what will happen. They are just buying the votes and padding the coffers of the defense and arms industries.

 

[SirJoe]

Really well done, these women have a world of courage. Who knows maybe we will see them competing internationally soon.
They certainly would have my support.