Rahmani, 25, has defied death threats from the Taliban and even members of her own extended family to become the first female fixed-wing Air Force aviator in Afghanistan's history and the first female pilot in the Afghan military since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. She was celebrated in Washington in 2015 when the State Department honoured her with its annual Women of Courage award.
Afghanistan's first female Air Force pilot Niloofar Rahmani files for asylum in the United States.