‘If I can get a plane into the sky, I can do anything’: female Afghan pilot refuses to be grounded

Months after Mohadese Mirzaee became Afghanistan's first female commercial airline pilot, the Taliban took Kabul. Now a refugee in Bulgaria, she is determined to fly again

Sitting alone in her small flat in Bulgaria, Mohadese Mirzaee contemplates the future. Three months ago, she left behind her family, and her dream job, in Afghanistan. At 23, Mirzaee was the country's first female commercial airline pilot.

Today, I don't know where to go, but I'm not giving up. I've started applying for pilot jobs anywhere because I know I need to get back to flying," she says by phone from the capital, Sofia.