Hey there, everybody. Welcome to another episode of the CloudBase Mayhem. I've got a really good show for you today, and I know I say that a lot, but I have been kind of dreaming in some ways of doing this one for years. I heard of Fatima Eftikari, which I hope I've said that correctly and asked her that a few times, from Iran. I heard about her years ago when Nick Greece went over to Iran and flew with her. I also heard a lot about her through Jody. I've been following her on the socials for quite some time. We sat down for this one when she was competing in the SRS in Italy. She had left Iran during the war to go compete in the SRS and get a breather from what was going on. I just thought that this time in particular, of course, given the situation in Iran, in the U.S.
and Israel, would be a really fascinating time to sit down and talk to Fatima, who is known as the queen of Iran's skies. She was the only woman for a very long time from Iran who was competing internationally and is a very good pilot and instructor and started the Women's Flight Society and has been really instrumental in getting a whole bunch of women in Iran into the air. We also talked about flying in Iran. We had a couple of 6,000-meter bases, and there was just so much to hit here. And she did a terrific job of articulating just what's going on and what it's like to be in Iran during the war right now and what it's like to participate in something that is ultimately freedom, freedom in the skies, and freedom, free choice to do what you want to do.
And her insights were fascinating. It was inspiring and a lot of fun. And regardless of your position on this war, I think you'll get a lot out of this and really enjoy it. And I'm really inspired to go fly. And every time I talk to someone from Iran and the flying they have, I always say, God, I've got to get over there and send it to those folks. So Fatima is a sender in a lot of different things. And we had a blast with this. Enjoy.
Fatima, thank you for sticking with it. The last time we tried this, you were still in Iran, and that makes it – well, we shouldn't say too much there. That makes it a little bit trickier. But now you're in Italy at the SRS. Today was day one. And I have been told by so many people that I have to get you on the show. So I've been following you for a while on Instagram. And you just – Yeah. What an amazing life. They call you – this is a very long intro here, but they call you the queen of Iran skies. I understand you're the first female pilot in Iran and the first who has qualified for things like the World Cup. And you're over there racing in the SRS. You're starting to get red there on me.
Starting to blush a little bit. But let's start – so first of all, just welcome. But let's start there. There's a lot of stuff I want to ask. I want to ask you – I mean, it's a very interesting time to be talking to a pilot in Iran. But let's start there. How did you become the queen of Iran skies? How did you become a pilot in Iran? Because that's – there are more constraints on females in Iran than in other places sometimes. I want you to tell me about that. But how did this – how did you get into it? And how did you become a pilot? And what did that journey look like for you?
First of all, hi. And thanks. Thanks for having me here.
And, yeah, I – if I were to talk about myself, myself, I was – I grew up in Isfahan. It's one of the biggest cities in Iran. And I can say growing up in this city can be really different, depend on your family. And I was lucky. So in my family, my current – My marriage was admired. And I started to learn a lot of skills and activity since I was very young because, yeah, I was just in this society and family that all these things that I like to do, like swimming, rollblading, like horse riding, even bicycle and motorcycles, were something that my dad and my mom were supporting me to do.
And all of these activities give me courage. And, I mean, as a little girl, I had the courage to – and I felt like I can do special things, you know. And I think it was the beginning of getting to this, guys, because I was 18 years old and I just saw an advertising about paragliding, which I didn't have any idea what it should be, just online. I found it. And I called and I asked if it's possible to go for women. I mean, women also can go for this course. And the guy said yes. And I just – in the next day, I was there with my dad and my brother, who is four years younger than me, and we registered.
So, yeah, I like to fly. I had no idea what is a paraglider. I had no idea how it should be. But I wanted to just be in the sky because I – I used to dream that I'm flying since I was five years old, maybe. And I was already professionally swimming or horse riding or bicycling or rollerblading and all of this stuff. So, yeah, it just started like that.
But to be honest, being the best and the first for women in something like this is easy in Iran. And that's why I become the first and the best because – because it was not like a lot of women doing things or – I can say that time I could remember girls was starting paragliding. But it was always like a limit for them. And I was the girl who – I was growing up with the idea that I have no – nothing can stop me. And I – being a girl doesn't make – it doesn't make me to be less – to have less ability in comparison to the boys.
Is that really different for you compared to your friends growing up and other women in Iran? Is it – were you quite unusual or is this normal that – as an outsider, all we hear is the stuff on the news, right? And the only – the only pilot that – I had Sohail on the podcast years ago and I see him all the time. I'm around the world. But other than my good friend Nick who went over and flew there, there's not – we don't have that much information other than we know that the flying is epic. 400K flights are regular and your 5,000-meter base, which is where I live, it's – flying is big and strong and really cool there. We know that.
But were you quite unusual? Was that very different than your peers?
No, I was not that much different.
The thing is that living in Iran is really – you have to understand how the society is working. You know, I will tell you some samples. For example, like 60 % of seats in university belongs to women since I was like – since 30 years ago. So it means that women are educated, high educated. And it's really also admired for women to continue to go to school. And do business. So they're owning business. They are in the family. They have their personality. They have independency. But it also depends on your family and your – I mean people who are around you.
Because the problem is that the laws in the country is not supporting women or children like it should be. So the development comes from inside the families and inside the people's home. So, I mean, when you see the societies, it should be like the government and laws should be ahead of women. But in our country, women are ahead – society is ahead. So if you are in a bad relationship, for example, you will lose a lot. Because it is not good support, according to law for women.
But if you look at normal people's life, I mean, in the families, women have their personality, they own things, they are encouraged to work, to educate, to be educated. But then it also depends, I mean, if you are in lower level of the community, if you are in a bad um i mean environment that then it affects you and you might lose a lot so this is basically what i can explain but it's also not that much common for women to be really i mean it's not a well i mean 17 years ago 20 years ago when i started paragliding paragliding for women it's it was always better to be high educated and be independence at work but not be really in sport activities and but my mom was really supporting me my mom teach me to swim when i was four years old and we were swimming in the rivers or lakes and a at that days we also used to cover more you know i i i used to swim with a full dress and my mom also so she was kind of over over us i mean um she's a kind of a special woman she is brave and she is not follow all the routines so she decide what is right what is wrong and push forward and my dad also was supporting so i can remember i was maybe 10 years old and my dad told me your mom is the bravest um
person i've ever known i ever seen and if you could be like half of her brave then you would be happy in your life so it it was like my mom and my dad also was a little bit different that's why i was really into um my activities like all of the sports and then all of these things but totally new society women are having their own normal lives and the thing is that if you just go i mean i've traveled around the world and here in europe also paragliding or being really active in this kind of sport also here is not that much common for women and i mean i am distributor of skywalk i was i was in a distributor meeting two years ago it was dealers all around the world sitting there and i was the only girl from iran so this is this is yeah this is like this everywhere not everywhere just in iran by the way i
can tell already that you're quite humble but you're also you know you're pretty i mean according to my research and tell me if i'm wrong but you're you're a heck of a pioneer for what you have accomplished there and you're a dealer you set up the women's flight society for years i believe you were the only woman competing internationally in paragliding from iran uh the only one competing in PWC i'd love to just hear what that was like especially when you traveled was it was it was it lonely was it difficult i mean even you know it is a very male dominant sport and we've done a lot of podcasts over the years about just uh how you can support female pilots versus they don't just get out of their way that i mean you know what i mean we we don't need to they don't need anything they're just as good they're they're better so um but i'd like to just hear what was hard about that what was it lonely was it you know it it's tough sometimes being a pioneer yeah
i can remember i started and i was after two years i was flying ixti and i flew my first 100 kilometer i participated in a cross country course that was the first cross country course in iran that was uh muhammad my now he is also uh we are in a team he is my partner in our team and group so now we are working together but at that time he was the instructor so i participated the course and and next season i flew 100k and i was i was super excited about all of these things and then i understood after like one year okay all of my friends are boys and i tried to i tried to
be part of the team so i tried to be accepted by the by the boys because it was just me and all of them and then i started to think okay what what is wrong why why i cannot see other girls flying in this level i mean i told you they start but they never take it serious and they they never flew for example cross country so it was a hard time for me it was a hard time because i i felt like why and i i have this kind of feminist way of thinking so i always wanted to say women can do so i i didn't like that boys just underestimate women's ability and i wanted to prove that women can do so i can remember that period of time maybe takes me three to four years that i was under pressure to to show that uh women can fly see and it's not just a
i mean man thing to do and um so i pushed i really tried to start this uh kind of NGO that you mentioned i gathered girls together i tried to convince them to participate at the courses and it was like uh you asked what was what was difficult so the difficult part was that i couldn't convince them that they can do that so it takes me ages to to to prove that you i mean i i i was experienced pilot already i could see them that they can fly they can thermal in good but when we started to talk about okay let's go some serious exceed they always said no this is not a girl thing to do or my instructor told me this is not a girl thing it's too dangerous it's too difficult and and it the difficult part was just make them believe that they can do that and i i can remember i i told a girl that okay i'm i'm flying now it's like maybe four or five years and i'm flying 100k 150 117 less than 200 that days and she told me my instructor told me uh you are not a real girl so
so yeah you just can't believe it and i'm not that much uh boy style of i mean i'm girly and i was i was just shocked and you know so when people don't want to accept that they can do something they can go this far so they i mean i was a sample there for years and i told them that you can do this as i can do and then they said you are not so the the mean be uh me being a girl was questioned now and it was it was interesting and it was also something that um i mean changed my view i understood we
women have an imaginary roof on top of our heads so we've been told to follow our dreams but we have to first start to be able to dream big big enough to pass this imaginary roof on top of all women heads and then as soon as someone just go i mean pass it then it would be easy it and then it's it's open so i told you i started to kind of convince some good pilots that you can come to the courses cross country courses and it took me some years but i can clearly remember the day that we i flew with in the course with another girl with and she was flying 100 kilometer and i was crying in the air because i felt like my dream coming true now i prove everyone that this is something that girls can do and i was flying with the second girl and third girl and fourth girl and now i mean after like 15 years 18 years i i even don't know the numbers but i have no idea how many girls in iran are flying cross countries and even the best record is not mine so this is yeah so
this is this is awesome that's awesome so and that that's the best thing about flying across countries is that That all came out of this, is that what it's called, the Women's Flight Society? For sure, not all of them
come out of that effort, but I mean, 15 years ago, I started this, 18 years ago maybe, and I pushed for it. And yeah, the first and second and third and fourth girl who flew 100K, I was flying with them. It was a course that I was one of the instructors. And then, you know, it was just this imaginary roof was just broken. So now women could think bigger. And then every instructor all around the country can coach their students in the sky and not tell them, you are a girl, you cannot participate in the course. So it changed. And I was so proud that I could do that. And I can remember that day, it was my biggest sadness.
And then it became my biggest happiness. So my dream came true. And then. But I want to tell you something. I used to think that this is because I'm in Iran. And then I started to travel all around the world. And I saw this imaginary roof on top of all women's heads all around the world. It's more or less like that. But we prefer to stay in under this comfort zone because it's easier. It's safer. If something is not for you, then you have excuse to not really push for it. And I understood. This is happening, not just in paragliding. It's happening in everywhere. You know, I mean, even in our, I mean, my family business, I can see that women who work, it's like a production environment.
So women are working better, but it's more difficult to convince them to be in the higher levels, to be in the managing levels. Because it needs more responsibility. And it's safer and easier for them to just stay in a lower level. And they are happy with the lower income, with lower. I mean, so this is what I don't like about being a woman. And I think, I mean, most of my life I was pushing to just fighting against this. And I think it's because maybe my personality, my grandmother is like me. So she was like in his, she's 90 years old.
And she, she have two university degree and she was driving since like two years ago. And she's a special woman. And I think it's also, it's because my mom was a special, had a special personality that I always couldn't accept. Just this is not for you because you are a woman. So this is not acceptable for me. And this was my story. And the difficult part of, I mean, flying was all of these things for me. Yeah.
You, you've traveled a ton. You know, you're in Italy right now at the SRS. How, what have you seen? How, how would you compare if you're an Italian female getting into the sport or a Czech female getting into sport or anywhere in the Alps versus Iran or in the States? I don't know if you've been, you've flown over here too, but what's, what's different? Is it, I mean, is it, is it, it sounds like societally it's pretty accepted for women to go to university, start businesses. Be successful. What about with flying? Is it, is there more of a, no, you can't do this than other places?
At the moment, no. It's really like here, or even if you go to a Iranian flying site, you would see, I mean, in comparison to the whole number, you can see more women on the, on the flying sites in Iran at the moment. So girls, yeah, yeah. And wow, no, no, it's not, no, it's not because of me, no, no, no, you know, when I also started, I can remember in our course, we were 15 and maybe six was six girls was in the course. So girls, yeah, girls used to start at that time too, but it was just a limit. So they were, they were the weakest.
They were the less, um, they, they. They were less capable, I mean, according to instructors, but, um, uh, here in Bassano, where I am, I mean, this is kind of the best pilot, women pilots ever now in this competition. So not talking about this competition, but I've been traveling to normal flying sites and I'm watching because it's something that I'm always thinking that how these things are different. Um, for sure. You can see a lot of, uh, girls, uh, in Iranian. You
can see a lot of, uh, girls, and they're flying
and you're seeing a lot of in Iran. And now, as I told you, girls are flying also very good. And now the idea that old fashioned idea for the flying and paragliding for women is completely changed at the moment in the country. And my story is going back to 20 years ago when I started at an 80 or 70 years ago when I was pushing for XC back there. Yeah.
Hmm. uh let's talk about the actual that's amazing and also super inspiring uh but let's talk about the actual flying you know i had sohail on years ago after he had just done some huge flight i can't remember if that was the record at the time but you know 6 000 meter bases yeah 400k flights he was talking about that he sometimes to do these downwinders he'll take an airplane to the other side of the country and then and then fly with the jet stream back and fly back to tehran uh so the but i also know from nick that there's some very strict air spaces i imagine right now i can't imagine flying is very safe with the war going on and we'll get to the war and and all that here in a little bit but i'd love to just hear about what happens when you're flying in iran with all this stuff you were just talking about the constraints the the difficulties the airspace the military i remember there you know nick was talking about there are places where you just absolutely cannot land uh just when you leave when your feet leave the ground do all these restrictions evaporate and you're just i mean it's the it's the ultimate freedom right that's what we're all chasing is freedom to fly talk about that just in that context with flying in iran
yeah to be honest uh you are uh like 100 percent free in iran in comparison to europe because i mean for example switzerland is just unbelievable it's uh airspace lower or not so i i never can i never can imagine myself flying in switzerland because i have no idea and i'm super so iran is big and um like we have some restricted area it's kind of uh some certain numbers there are obvious you know them you shouldn't go flying toward them and um yeah yeah it's just easy and you know i mean the story of we started big cross country and my my experience of 6 800 meter altitude those days we didn't even had this restricted area on our gps as we just go fly and so i himself had landed in
the airspace
in in in some next to one of the nuclear zones and yeah they they asked asking you so it is the least thing that they can do so they just keep you and ask you and as soon as they understand you are just a crazy pilot you are free to go but it's it's about iranians so i highly recommend you to not to do so if you are not iranian because it might cause a lot of problem but for us no i think iran is a big country and i don't find it difficult to do cross country organizing competitions or uh flying but at the moment we are in war so no one is flying i i doubt even birds can fly at the moment uh without getting shot but uh normally i mean since i started i i just never care about where i shouldn't go i just knew that okay east
to isfahan just don't pass 100k or if you fly that long way that we normally do our records from kermanshah to to our terran side i know that next to hamadan is a nuclear is is a um i mean military base so just go this direction and um i i never got in really big troubles yeah i i landed several times and police came and even they took me to ask some questions but because i was close to some uh military area landing but for iranian i don't see it like really a trauma or or a big um problem flying yeah
it's like that when
you when you travel i know you've competed in kazakhstan and turkey and right now you're in italy when you leave iran to to fly to travel to participate in the things that you love to do which is not only paragliding i i've just followed you on instagram you do all kinds of stuff uh easier harder a relief is it big breath of fresh air because you're just traveling or uh yeah yeah we'll talk about that
it's really different uh for example um when you come to when i come to european country for um uh flying or competitions you can see lots of things here is easier because everything already has been settled and the nature in here is designed for this sport our nature is full of dust so we are fighting hard for for being able to reach i mean for preparing a takeoff we have to spend a lot of money to just make it clean but here is just grass so um you can see in this european country lots of things is easier or lots of these things is more organized but
when you go to iran i mean an european my european friends to come to iran like um lots of them the first i mean after two weeks traveling with me and flying uh i like this comment that they told me wow you are really really free and this is you know we can do whatever we want we can park everywhere we can camp everywhere we can take a trip everywhere we can nothing is like uh stopping you can land everywhere and everyone is welcoming so you land in every land and people come with tea and it's welcoming but here in europe people are um it's a lot of things to do or not to do to to it's a lot of things that you have to pay for it for uh and you know we a lot of things is cheaper easier and faster in my country but
you have to just um i mean be for sure for for a foreigner this is different but also as a foreigner if you are in touch with a local then life is like 100 much more easier for you because you know the first iranian culture is hospitality and if you are a guest then you are just welcome and everything is like okay and easy for you but yeah if if i want to come here for sure
at least you know we can take some time we can spend with a lot of people so totally i really don't know what the i would like to do to be in this country right now because that's it i think it's it's just a big thing to do and you know it is a huge thing and i don't know how to do it i think it's very difficult but yeah um i mean if you want to be in an irish country and you want to travel to you know such an area you can come with your mother or friend because it's very um you know you can travel and so on but you know i mean it's also quite difficult to do this kind of stuff um so yeah yeah no problem at least as a foreigner just like uh something that can be done at Like, not easy to handle here.
What do you think the, again, with all the travel that you do, what do you think the biggest misconceptions are of foreign pilots, whether that be American or European or in other places, about your country? What do we all have wrong?
I really believe that people in the world have no idea about my country. And, yeah, it sometimes surprised me. It sometimes even makes me sad. But I also, I wrote some sentences that I like to read for you, maybe because I don't want to miss it, about my country. And then I maybe, and after that, I can answer also your question. So, you know, Iran is a large country in the Middle East, and it's 17th largest country in the world. So we also have a very amazing natural diversity that makes it almost a paradise for outdoor activities.
We have high mountains. We have forests, snow, sea, lakes, and it's a country of four seasons. So we also have peaks above 4,000 meters. We have long mountain ranges. We have cloud base as high as 7,000 meter altitude. That you already mentioned. And we have green fields. We have deserts with sand dunes, beautiful coastlines, and thick forests. So this is something that I'm pretty sure most of the people don't know. So when I'm talking about Iran, most of my foreign friends just assume it's a desert with some palm tree.
And they told me. So, I mean, this diversity. The diversity of nature, they have no idea. But I want to tell you something else. The reality, I mean, the thing that defines Iran for me is not landscapes. It's about people.
Iranians are special people, I think, because they have an incredible ability to survive, to continue, and find a reason to celebrate life. You know, we always find a reason to be happy, to dance, to gather together. To cook, share food, and partying around. And, I mean, it is something that I also find it special while I was traveling. Especially European country, something like this is really rare. So if you ever travel to Iran, the first thing that captures you will probably not be the historical monuments or the nature. It will be the hospitality of the people.
And, I mean, Iranian culture is different. It is deeply based on welcoming guests. And, I mean, people always say, most of my friends told me when they were leaving, that you arrive in this country as a visitor and you are living as a friend. And it's so true. And that's why most of my European friends, very close friends, are the ones that they were traveling to Iran. And I met them back there in Iran. So when I'm coming here, they are different. They are just super open and friendly and hospitable for me. Because I think this is something that they learn and they like to do or behave like that.
That's lovely. I'm glad you wrote that out. Okay, let's go to the current situation a bit. And I know there was quite a bit of civil stuff going on before all of this happened. So things have been very active in your country for a while, in this recent thing, for terrible reasons. So it's very turbulent right now. And I'm just going to read my own question. For someone whose life is built around freedom, yours, literally physical freedom in the sky, what does it mean to be a pilot, to be a citizen of Iran right now? When we tried to connect a couple of weeks ago, while you were in Iran, you said, yeah, I'm going kite surfing.
And I thought, wow, that's bizarre. How do you go kite surfing when the war is going on? So paint us a picture. What does this war look like? It looks like there might, as of right now, it looks like there might be a chance at ending the war, at least stopping it for some time. But what has it been like to live there recently? Again, I'd love for you to hit on misconceptions. What do the people think? What
do they think
of the war, about losing the Supreme Leader, about all of it? And you're in Italy. I think you can talk freely. But if you can't fully, I understand. But I'd love to just hear from an insider, what's it like living in Iran?
The thing is that for most of people out of Iran,
because Iran is in headlines for years, for nuclear, for war. And sentences like this. But since I was born, that is like 37 years ago, there was no war in Iran. And when the war started, it was unbelievable. It was surreal and really scary for all of us. So we haven't been in any war before, because I know that people might imagine that it's, that part of the war in the Middle East, it's always war. But Iran was like always a peaceful country for me. And now the war started.
So yeah, it started with some attacks to certain military areas and specific targets. In Tehran, for sure, it was super scary. The sound of explosion every night. So these fighter jets every night, so you can watch them. And then you can see the explosion in like some around you. In Tehran, it was super scary. And many people left their houses, the city. They go to their relatives to safer places or smallest towns. In my city, Isfahan, that situation was a bit calmer.
The neighborhoods close to military bases was still really scary. We knew that they are not targeting houses or people, but it's still some people got hurt or got killed because they were targeting the apartment that some special person was inside. So the whole people who was living there got hurt or injured, which was like really sad. So yeah, this is like, this was scary for everyone. But the biggest problem about the war for me, I mean, or in my idea was that life was stopped.
So it means that you wake up in the morning and you don't really know what to do today. You just have to follow the news. It's okay. Looking for any new information or try to predict the future. And it was unbelievable. And it was after a few days, you know, it started to be really like being in prison because you cannot really do anything for, especially for us, you know, we are pilots. We are just, I mean, get used to be out. And at that time I just was like in a big pressure because I didn't know how things would go and what should we do or what would be the next step.
So this was the big problem for me. Economy slowed down and plans are uncertain. You also worry about all the people that you know. So you try to contact them, but it's not possible to contact because net was completely, I mean, dead, no internet at all. For the first days, it was not even possible to call anyone. So it was really like a nightmare that was not ending. And, but as I told you, like Iranian are interesting for me. They try to find small reason to continue life.
And they started to gather families. I mean, they started to find a reason to cook, dance, like a pandemic. We started to just cook because you cannot go out. You cannot do anything. So we just started to make a cake or make bread, you know, because it's nothing else that you can do.
And yeah, during the war, many cities hosted friends and relatives who left Tehran temporarily. And yeah, that was like that. Yeah, so then the Nowruz arrived. You know, Nowruz is our Iranian new year. And it's in the first day of spring, which is celebrating the birth of a nature. And for Iranian, it's really big symbol of rebirth. And it is the most important celebration of the year. And Iranian celebrated, the new year just in the middle of the war. So it
was interesting also. People were like, just imagine a Christmas time. It's that everyone is going shopping, New Year presents, gifts, gathering together. And it was in the middle of bombing every day. So, but Iranian celebrated it. And it's also was really beautiful and interesting for me.
Wow. What is the kind of general sentiment of the people towards the Israelis, towards the Americans right now? Is it just hate? Is it acceptance? Is it hopeful? Is it optimistic? What do you think people are feeling right now?
I mean, when you look at the society, I mean, historically, Iranian people feel cultured. And culturally, really close to American people. Because values like personal freedom, property rights, and Iranian like to have business, you know? It's like most American way of thinking in comparison to, for example, European, which is more socialist, you know what I mean? So, I think for Iranian, I mean, yeah, US government now is attacking, but first of all, Iranians feel really,
have friendship relationship, really friendly relationship with US people. And when I also want to talk about, I mean, with Israel, Iranian have this sympathize with Palestinians because of the things that happen to them. But also, Iranians also don't feel any like, don't find themselves enemies of Israeli people also. So, what Israeli government is doing is not acceptable for most of the Iranians, not all of them, to Palestinians.
But on the other hand, you know, it's a lot of Iranian who live in Israel. So, it's also lots of things in common that the Iranian who immigrated to Israel, the Jewish Iranians. So, by the end, Iranian don't find themselves to have any problem with American people or Israeli people or Palestinian people. And we end up having this war. And about this war, this is big conflicts. This is big disagreements. Maybe it's the same in US at the moment. So, some people were supporting and now we end up, I
mean, just what's the point? The war is end. Our going to be end soon. And it cost a lot for Iranian people and nothing changed. Some people wanted it. Some people didn't want it. But lots of people used to think that it will end different. But now I think most of the people don't, are not supporting the war at the moment.
Yeah, it must be a very strange and I'm sure a scary time to be there. I bet it's a bit of a relief to be in Italy and just flying your paraglider. It's got to be.
Yeah, but to be honest, I didn't feel that I'm not safe when I was inside the country. We were talking with my parents that do we need to maybe go for some months out in Turkey because it's possible for us anyway. And then we decided, no, we will stay home. And it's interesting if I tell you that since the war started, it was a lot of issues. It was a lot of Iranian going back rushly to the country. And yeah, you expect that they would run out, but they were run in. So I'm telling you, Iranian are different and sometimes interesting even for me as an Iranian. So yeah, they just was rushing going back because they were worried about families, friends, their business, because of not having lack of the connections and internet.
And they really didn't afraid of being hurt or killed as a person who is not, I mean, military person.
Okay, well, let's pretend that the war wasn't happening and you were back home and participating in flying and you're up on launch. And a young Iranian girl comes up to you. You're the queen of Iran skies and she's heard about you and she wants to learn. This is her first possible, she's going to take her first flight and she comes up to you with big wide eyes and asks you, you know, can she learn how to do this? Can she learn how to be a pilot? What do you tell her? That little girl, what do you tell her about what she'll face? Maybe what she'll gain? Why she should do it? I would ask her,
why do you want to fly?
Because maybe according to my experience, most of them want to fly because they want to do something. It's full of adrenaline, which is not the case. Or they want to do something special as something like a luxury things, which I don't see it either. I mean, for flying, I need a special character and personality. And I, at least I want them to know what is it really? So that's why I always ask them, why do you want to fly? And based off, according to their answer, I can help them to start or I can convince them to go and do something else, not wasting their time, energy and money and mine.
So the reasons have to be pure in their heart. They have to want to be a bird. They have to want to fly, not to just participate in something like a Disneyland ride. That's nice. That's a great way to go about it. What's the reason for this? What's the purpose? That's a smart way to start.
Yeah, for being a good pilot, you need to want to fly. You need to be patient. You need to try hard. You need to push your limits. You need to put time and energy. And I just don't want to...
I mean, flying is something special for me. And I just don't want to make it like a... It's not just a business, you know? It's easy to just... I mean, for me, it's not like that. And I don't want people to start and be disappointed. So I want them to know what they are going to face. I mean, what they are going through. What is the path? What is the procedure? And this is something that I also wish someone else would do that for me. So if I'm asking about something, if someone knows, I expect them to explain for me. What is it really? Or what challenges I might face?
Or... Yeah, this is simply what I would do, what I expect, and that's what I would do. I
gather you've been flying about 20 years now. When you think about tomorrow and a year and five years, down the road, what are you excited about now after all this time flying and competing? And what keeps you going? What are you excited about?
Yeah, I was doing a lot of different things.
And I found out that anything else, like anything else that I'm doing, it gives me the feeling of like this level, maybe 10%, 20%. And when I'm in the sky, it's 100%. So when I'm not in the sky, I just miss it. I simply miss it. And it happens like every year several times for me that I'm in the sky and I'm doing a special experiment in the sky, fly somewhere, go somewhere. I mean, experience something that I'm thinking that, wow, if I had to learn all of these things for 20 years to be able to do this flight, just this one, and be just now at this location and watching this view, it's totally worth it.
Just for this one. And this is simply what makes me not to be able to quit. So my goal is to continue doing this as long as possible. That's why, I really am taking care of myself. I'm not risking that much recently. Now I'm getting old. I'm 37 now. So my way of flying is not different. And I really taking care of myself because I want to do it for maybe next 50 years or something.
And I don't want to, because I know I will miss it. I would miss it. And I simply cannot quit. Nice.
And a perfect place to stop. Fatemeh, you're great. I've just got new wrinkles on my face. I've been smiling for so long. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you making this happen. I just thought the timing had to be now for this, given what's going on in the world. And I've really enjoyed following you all these years, doing cool things. And I thank my ex-partner Jodi for putting me on. She said, you've got to get, I just texted her actually a couple hours ago. Yeah, I'm getting Fatemeh on the show. So well, good luck in Italy. Good luck at the SRS. Have fun in Bassano and you must eat at the Abbey. Just check it out. I went there eight nights in a row back many, many years ago when the weather was terrible. The food is so good. So enjoy and fly fast and fly safe.
And thanks for coming on the show. I really appreciate you.
Yeah. Thank you for you to having me. I also want to thank the SRS organizer, Brett and everyone, because yeah, they helped me really to get here. We had a problem for registration and everything. And I really am thankful about all of this good atmosphere here in SRS and Bassano. They are making a really nice things like sport class competitions. It is really, I really like it. And I also am super happy that I could manage to get here. I thought it might be difficult, but yeah, here I am. And I am looking forward to fly this week. And thank you for you. I was listening to your podcast and I understood.
I mean, I, I really appreciate the people who makes this paragliding things bigger or more, more, give, give the possibility for people who even not flying, be a little bit more, more deep into it. So thank you for your, all of the things that you are doing. And thank you for having me.
Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. And yeah, it's an amazing community. We're very fortunate to be part of it. Thank you. Thank you. And good luck. If
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