Becoming Superman

As a child, I always dreamed of becoming Superman. I used to like everything about him - his powers, his costume and most importantly his ability to fly. l have always wanted to fly like Superman despite knowing that it was just an illusion and unrealistic dream. As time passed, I understood that it was not possible for me to become Superman, so I decided to look for other options. At that time, I didn’t have access to the internet or information about paragliding or any sky sports. The only sport that I could think of was skydiving and I wanted to become a skydiver. Skydiving was the only sport that could fulfill my desire of flying in the sky.

At the age of 20, I found out that there is a group of athletes doing a sport called paragliding for the first time in Afghanistan. I then started to get some information about the sport. At first, I thought it wouldn't be as interesting as skydiving but I had to go and try it because there was no chance for me to do skydiving in Afghanistan. I decided to go and visit this group of paragliding pilots and came to know that paragliding costs a lot of money. I was incapable of it. I didn’t have the money to get the equipment so I had to wait till I finally had a chance. I gathered around some money and I started the course.

In 2017, I started paragliding. That was the time that I discovered that paragliding is not only flying from a mountain and landing. It's the purest, easiest and cheapest way of flying. After some time, I bought my own equipment. It was the most amazing thing ever that happened to me; to be able to fly with my own wings.

Paragliding completely changed my life. I couldn’t think of anything else except paragliding - flying and being on top of the mountains. It was a heavenly feeling. Since I was so eager to fly, I learned to fly in two days which was beyond expectations by our team and me. After some time, I was able to fly without the need of an instructor.

I went to my first competition in Indonesia for Asian games. After that, my journey to the world of paragliding began. I went to many other competitions. I became the first medalist for Afghanistan in paragliding.

Nowadays, I teach paragliding to others to be a part of making their dream of flying come true. I also take passengers to the sky with my tandem to give them the feeling of flying.