The women’s cycling team in the UCI World Tour has recently announced that Fariba Hashemi, a cyclist from Afghanistan, has won the title of the Women’s Cycling Championship of Afghanistan for the year 2025 in France.
In a message posted on their X account, the team announced the conclusion of this competition, stating that the races took place from June 26 to 28 of this year in France, where Afghan women cyclists competed on a 115.5-kilometer route alongside athletes from France.
It is worth noting that recently, the International Cycling Union and France announced that they would hold competitions for Afghan women cyclists alongside the World Championships in France to show solidarity with Afghan women.
Afghan athletes were not participants in the global competitions; rather, they competed among themselves to determine the women’s cycling champion of Afghanistan for 2025.
According to information from the women’s cycling team in the UCI World Tour, Fariba Hashemi, Yaldoz Hashemi, Zahra Rezaei, Samira Ahrari, and Mahnaz Mohammadi were among the five Afghan women athletes who participated in these competitions.
It should also be noted that Fariba Hashemi had previously won the Women’s Cycling Championship of Afghanistan in Switzerland in 2022.
The International Cycling Union quoted Fariba Hashemi, the champion of the 2022 Women’s Cycling Championship of Afghanistan in Switzerland and one of the five participating female cyclists, stating that she is fully committed to defending her championship title.
Ms. Hashemi emphasized: “I am ready to defend my championship title. It is clear that I hope to win, but I also hope this event brings recognition to other athletes.”
Additionally, the statement quoted David Lappartient, President of the International Cycling Union, expressing that seeing the best female cyclists from Afghanistan competing in their national championship is “a matter of pride.”
This comes at a time when, following the return of the caretaker government to power, women and girls in Afghanistan have been completely banned from participating in all sports activities, leading to the disbandment of women’s national sports teams in Afghanistan.
As a result of this action, many Afghan female athletes who were part of the national team have been forced to leave the country.
