Meet Afghanistan's female mountaineer

Scaling mountains and smashing taboos

Location: Kabul, Afghanistan

Eighteen-year-old Fatima Sultani

and her team of nine mountaineers

are tackling some of the country’s highest peaks

and the world's hardest climbs

(SOUNDBITE) (Dari) AFGHAN FEMALE MOUNTAINEER, FATIMA SULTANI, SAYING:

"My main goal is to show the world that Afghan women are strong and can do the most challenging work that men do. When I became aware that women from foreign countries come here to conquer the high peaks of Afghanistan, I thought, 'Why can't we, the Afghan women, conquer these peaks that are located in our own country?' With this motivation, I joined the 'HikeVentures' team to achieve my goal of conquering high mountain peaks."

Fatima is the youngest woman

to climb Noshakh Peak

scaling 24,580 feet

Her team's next challenge

is to represent Afghanistan on Mount Everest