Deep in the mountains of Northern Afghanistan lived an all-female collective of horsewomen warriors. They protected themselves and their community from
violent threats, and, in 2001, were recruited to help United States forces train their own horses to defeat the Taliban. In this excerpt from—herself an equestrian descendent of one of these women—we meet Mina, who would become the leader of the group, and was later personally called upon by the U.S. Green Berets for her assistanceMina couldn’t remember not knowing how to ride. Horses were her life. She depended on them, and they never let her down.
“Let’s stage a wedding,” Hiba said, sorting through the dresses in her mother’s modest clothing trunk. Mina was to play the bride, her most hated role. Hiba helped her into a white dress and twisted her long black hair into a bun. She even had a tiara for Mina to wear. Her grandfather, Hiba explained, would be Mina’s groom while Hiba officiated. The girls spread out a cloth on the floor and anchored it with teacups and a few dolls as the wedding guests.
Her friend unlocked the door, and the two girls stood face-to-face. “I’m sorry,” Hiba said, her voice flat. For months, Mina did not dare speak about that afternoon. Her mother was still in Iran helping her sisters, and Mina knew she could only wait. But when Ghashang finally returned, Mina told her parents what had happened. Her father became enraged.
Ghashang dropped the knife and grabbed her daughter. “Mina, we don’t have much time. Go get Ruba.” At the mention of her favorite horse, the girl ran to the yard. Ruba and her mother’s horse, Farah, seemed to sense something awful had happened. They and the three stallions the family owned formed a circle around her, protecting her. In that moment, Mina would have given anything to be a horse rather than a girl.
Ghashang had known to go north, to the caves, because of the lore of the women there, the ones who had escaped abusive husbands and fathers and brothers. The legend was shared like an amulet among wives and daughters and sisters. Whispers in the wind ensured that their stories reached those who needed to hear them. But when she and Mina fled, she still didn’t know if any of these stories were really true.
When Mina met Soheila, she recognized the way the girl carried herself, the look of terror and panic writ large across her face, because she had arrived at the caves in the same state. But she wasn’t that scared little girl anymore, and she had known that Soheila didn’t have to be either. If she could heal, so could her new friend.
“You girls look lost,” one of the men called. He gestured to the six others riding alongside him, and they quickly encircled the young women. “You know, General Daoud has proclaimed that women are allowed to attend university now,” one of the men said. “You should be in school, not out here playing ponies.”
The Afghan man had never seen a horse move in this way. Shocked, he lost his balance. As he fell to the ground, his gun went off, which spooked his horse to rear high. Soheila watched as the horse brought his front hooves back down on the man’s chest with a sickening crack. His body jerked three times, he wheezed, and then he fell still.
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