Afghan female cyclist wins silver at Asian Games after disguising herself as a man to train

The easy part for Fariba Hashimi was winning a silver medal in the women's cycling road race at the Asian Games.

The nearly impossible part for the female cyclist from Afghanistan was trying to train in her country. To do that, she dressed as a man in a place where women have few rights. “All the time when I was going to training,” she said, “I was dressing as a guy.” She said she also hid her face when she could in order to not be recognised.

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“Because sometimes when they recognised me, they were trying to throw stones or hitting me," she said.

Hashimi won silver Tuesday in a time of 2 hours, 50 minutes, 5 seconds, which marked another leg in a journey that began in 2021 when she left Afghanistan.