Who Is Safia Firozi? Afghan Pilot's Fake Picture Goes Viral On Social Media

Who Is Safia Firozi?: The pilot from Afghanistan made headlines on August 20 as the reports of her death went viral.

Many social media posts claimed that Firozi was stoned to death by the Taliban. However, the fact checking organisations have called it misinformation.

The Quint in its report said that the viral picture claimed to be of Firozi's is in fact an old picture of a woman named Farkhuda Malikzada who was reportedly lynched in 2015.

As per media reports, there is no information about the whereabouts of Firozi as of yet.

Who is Safia Firozi ?

• Captain Safia Firozi was the second female pilot in Afghanistan after Capt. Niloofar Rahmani.
• She was 25-year-old when she completed her training at the air force unit. As per a report of 2016, she was flying C-208, a turboprop transport plane for Afghani air force.
• Her family had fled Afghanistan during the 1990s when the Taliban had started to establish its power.
• Firozi and her family members lived in Pakistan as refugees till US troops invaded Afghanistan in 2001. They went back to Afghanistan after that, as per a report.
• When she was in school, the television commercial urging Afghan women to join military forces reportedly inspired her. After graduating from college, she enrolled herself in the military academy to become a communication officer.
• At the time, the Afghan forces were looking for women to join the forces as pilots. Firozi reportedly was the only woman among 12 women who passed the test.
• During her training days in Herat, she met her husband who was also a pilot. As per the last reported information about her, she had am 8 months old daughter in 2016.

As per reports, there were over 1,800 women serving in the Afghan military in 2016. The forces of the country were heavily backed by United States of America and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.

Feature Image credit: Hindustan Times