
Masooma Alizada carries her bicycle as she gets ready for her weekly training ride away from disapproving stares in Kabul.

Alizada is part of Afghanistan's Women's National Cycling Team, a group that has been breaking new ground for women's sports and pushing the boundaries of what is - and is not - acceptable for young women in the conservative Muslim country.

Zahra Alizada is one of more than 40 women who train with the group. The team has competed in several international competitions and is pushing ahead despite not having been paid for several months, a problem for many Afghan athletes. To clock the distances needed for training, team members pile their bikes in cars and drive outside the capital, where their uniform of loose-fitting tops and long pants won't draw stares.

Under the Taliban in the 1990s, women in Afghanistan were excluded from public life, banned from going to school or stepping outside their home without a male family member. Women's rights have made gains since the hardline Islamist group was ousted in 2001, but observers worry that progress is at risk as gender-based violence persists and women remain under-represented in politics. Drivers sometimes shout profanities at the team members, and their captain grapples with a back injury from a crash after a man on a motorbike reached out to grab her.

Abdul Sadiq Sadiqi, the team’s coach and president of the Afghan Cycling Federation, said he was not overly concerned. "These are people who don't let their children go to school," he said. "The coach is like a shield for us," said team member Malika Yousufi. "If he wasn't there, we couldn't ride."

Yousufi (centre) said she was determined to become the first Afghan woman to compete in the Tour de France, a cycling race dominated by men since its first event in 1903. "Nothing will stop us," she said.