SHANNON Galpin has spent much of the past decade working to challenge one of Afghanistan's biggest enduring social stigmas: women on bikes. 
The 40-year-old from Colorado founded Mountain2Mountain, a non-profit organisation to educate and empower women, in 2006. Galpin, a fitness trainer and pilates instructor, packed in her job, sold her home and headed to war-torn Afghanistan – one of the worst countries in the world to be a woman. 
Over 20 visits to date, she has been involved in everything from setting up reading classes in women's prisons and curating powerful photography exhibitions to launching rural midwifery training programmes and building a school for the deaf. 
Galpin has also become a mentor to the growing number of women who want to ride bikes and is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to raise funding for a documentary film, Afghan Cycles, charting their journey to date. Here she shares that powerful story.

Explain a little about what the documentary film entails?
Afghan Cycles follows a group of young women in Afghanistan risking their honour and lives for the joy and liberation of riding a bicycle. From rural cycling clubs to a national cycling team, these women are ushering in a new era for a country slowly awakening to global influence and inevitable cultural change. 
Intertwined, their stories lead us on a journey into a country of beauty and contradictions, through decades of upheaval and repression. Their innocent act of revolution is a harbinger of a brighter future for women in traditionally male-dominated societies around the globe.
As the 19th century American social reformer and feminist Susan B. Anthony once said: “Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance.”
Just like the bicycle played a role in women’s emancipation in North America in the early 1900s, today Afghan women are breaking deep-seated gender taboos by learning how to ride, asserting that they deserve the same rights as their male counterparts and normalising the visibility of women in Afghan society. 
They are a part of a revolution that is currently unfolding across the Middle East, making gender equality in this region a hotbed issue and gradually ushering in a new, more inclusive era for women in Afghan culture.
Afghan Cycles will not only tell the story of these women, but will be used as a tool in the overall movement to empower and change women’s lives.

What is the background behind it?
I started working in Afghanistan in 2008 on small projects to empower women and girls. I soon realised that while I saw floods of men and boys on bikes everywhere I went, girls weren't not allowed to ride, making Afghanistan one of the only countries in the world where women can't ride bikes.
I started mountain biking through remote villages and in the capital Kabul as a way to challenge that gender barrier and better understand how deeply rooted it was. In a country, and a time, where women are taking part in sports, politics, even the army and police forces, they still weren't allowed to ride and I found that taboo fascinating and frustrating. 
After many years, I was introduced to the man who has formed a men's national cycling team – and women's – and I immediately pledge my support to help. When I returned to the US, I met up with a close friend for coffee who is a beautiful documentary filmmaker and told her about these girls.
By the time we were done with coffee, we had decided to make this film and four months later we took an all-female film crew to Afghanistan for our first production trip. 

Afghan Cycles Trailer from LET MEDIA on Vimeo.

Why was it important to you to make this film?
I think that stories like these can radically challenge how we look at women and girls, particularly those in countries like Afghanistan where their rights are limited in all facets of life. These young women aren't victims, despite risking their lives to ride a bike and the challenges that come growing up a girl in Afghanistan. They are brave and hopeful and have the capacity to change not just themselves through cycling, but their community.
Already we've seen that ripple effect as these girls are inspiring young women around the world and the film will highlight the bravery and resilience of young women fighting to take back the streets and their rights, one pedal stroke at a time.  

There is immense bravery from the girls and young women who take part in the project. Tell us a bit more about their stories.
The young women who ride and who we have followed in the film are incredibly brave. They are insulted, their honour is questioned and they risk their physical safety every time they cycle. Some of the women are told that what they are doing is against Islam, others are told they are “bad girls”. It’s appalling, yet still they ride. 
They know that change only happens when they take a stand and that's no different from the girls that risk acid attacks and street harassment walking to school, or the female politicians who live with constant death threats.
They are on the front line of a civil rights movement for women's rights. 

Why did they choose to be involved?
They are hopeful that by sharing their story, they can change their culture and inspire more girls to ride. They also feel that if they can raise the Afghan flag in competitions outside of Afghanistan that national pride will trump gender and start to build more support for women in sports.

The Herald:

What repercussions do they face by choosing to ride bikes?
These girls ride, knowing that they are the first. That men and women will see them and disapprove. That men and boys will throw rocks, hurl insults, and question their and their families' honour. Yet still, they ride. 

Tell us about what the Kickstarter campaign involves?
The Kickstarter campaign is to help fund the final production trip to Afghanistan and post production so that we can premiere the film in 2016 and share this story around the world. The film will be a tool to help build support for the team and long-term sustainability. They have had little to no support other than from my organisation. We need to build a community of support so that they can show the world what young women are capable and also show Afghanistan that these women can bring honour and pride to their country through the sport of cycling.

The Kickstarter campaign for Afghan Cycles runs until September 30. For more information, visit kickstarter.com