The UCI has announced that the Afghanistan Women's Road Championships will be held for the first time since 2022 this year, four years since various athletes were evacuated from the country.
The event will be organised by the French Cycling Federation and will take place during the French Elite Road Championships in Les Herbiers on June 26 and 28.
Riders from Afghanistan will compete alongside French racers, with a race within a race determining the Afghan champion.
Reigning champion Fariba Hashimi, who currently races as a pro for Women's WorldTour team Ceratizit, will line up on the start line for the road race alongside four other riders. Her sister Yuldoz Hashimi is also racing, as are Zahra Rezayee, Samira Ehrari, and Mahnaz Mohammadi.
Fariba and Yuldoz Hashimi, plus Rezayee, will also take part in the time trial.
"The 2022 Afghan Women's Road Championships in Aigle marked the start of my professional cycling career at the highest level. After winning the Women Elite race, I had the opportunity to join a UCI Women's WorldTeam," Fariba Hashimi said.
"So, it's with great emotion that I am preparing to defend my title. I obviously hope to win, but I also hope that the event will allow other athletes to shine.
"I would like to thank the UCI and the FFC for making this new edition of our National Championships possible. It is a wonderful demonstration of the solidarity that drives the international cycling community."
Hashimi won the previous National Championships road race ahead of her sister, with the race held on a 57km course at the UCI headquarters in Aigle, Switzerland, in October 2022.
That event was the first held since the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan's government in 2021, which brought about the evacuations of dozens of athletes, including cyclists, due to fears over their safety.
One hundred and sixty five people were evacuated from the country as a result. However, Afghanistan Cycling Federation President Fazli Ahmad Fazli was later banned by the UCI for breaches of the UCI Code of Ethics after he was found to have threatened and abused riders who questioned the evacuation selection process.
The 2025 elite women's Afghanistan National Championships will consist of a 26.5km time trial featuring 400m of elevation gain. and a 115.5km road race featuring 1,540m of elevation gain.
"Seeing the best Afghan female cyclists again competing in their National Championships will undoubtedly be an emotional occasion and a source of pride, three years after the last edition of the event," UCI president David Lappartient said.
"Time has passed, and these athletes have now found their way thanks to cycling. I would like to thank the French Cycling Federation and its President, Michel Callot, from the bottom of my heart for their valuable collaboration. It is also thanks to them that this race can take place.
"I hope that this unique formula of a major National Federation hosting athletes from other countries – where it is not possible to hold such an event – as part of its own National Championships, will inspire others. Such gestures of solidarity from members of the international cycling community honour our sport and reaffirm its role as a promoter of our sport's fraternity and of peace."
