Cycling our bikes is something we all do. it’s something that we do without thinking about. It’s something we probably take for granted regardless of our gender. But for the women in Afghanistan it is a very different story. For Afghan women it is considered offensive to ride a bicycle. Although it is not a crime to do so it is seen in a similar vain as morality crimes such as touching in public which can often lead to time in jail.
Afghan Cycles is a feature documentary about a new generation of Afghan women pushing gender and cultural barriers by riding bikes. The team behind the project have filmed the progress of movement since 2013 and are now looking to go back and finish this story and they are looking for your support. They ran their first kickstarter campaign back in 2013 to fund the very first trip which was only meant to be a short documentary. After getting there they realised that “after we began interacting with these women and learning more about them, we realized that this wasn’t just a short documentary to profile the National Team. To do this story justice, it would have to become a feature length film, focused not just on the National Team, but on the brave female cyclists all over Afghanistan who are pushing gender and cultural barriers using the bicycle as a vehicle for freedom of mobility, independence, and social change.”
According to the latest kickstarter campaign by backing the project, “you are supporting the final production trip to Afghanistan this October and the post-production costs that are needed to finish Afghan Cycles. In anticipation of the film’s premiere in Spring 2016, we are building out a robust outreach campaign. You aren’t just supporting a film, you are taking part in a global movement.”
To read more about the project check out the kickstarter page
