Women in Afghanistan, Cycling Past a Taboo
阿富汗婦女 破騎車禁忌
By Jed Lipinski

In November, Shannon Galpin was riding her single-speed mountain bike through the hills outside Kabul. It was her 11th visit to Afghanistan, and she had grown accustomed to the sight of camel caravans, abandoned Soviet tanks and soldiers sweeping the desert for land mines.
去年11月，珊儂‧賈爾平在喀布爾市外的山丘間，騎著單速越野單車趴趴走。這是她第11次旅行阿富汗，對駱駝商隊、棄置的蘇聯戰車、軍人在沙漠中清理地雷的景象早已習以為常。

One thing she had not seen was another woman on a bicycle. But one afternoon a barista at a local cafe told Galpin that not only were Afghan women riding bikes, they had formed their own national cycling team.
有個景象她從未見過，就是另一個婦女騎在單車上。某個下午，當地一家咖啡館的咖啡師告訴賈爾平，阿富汗婦女不僅騎單車，還組成了一支國家女子自行車隊。

Dressed in long pants and full sleeves, with headscarves tucked beneath their helmets, they practiced on the highways before dawn on dated road bikes, accompanied by the coach of the men’s cycling team.
穿著長褲長袖，頭盔下塞了頭巾，她們在天未亮前，騎著陳舊的公路單車在高速公路上練習，陪伴她們的是男子自行車隊教練。

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Galpin, a 38-year-old former Pilates instructor from Breckenridge, Colorado. “I’d been in the most liberal areas of the country, and I’d never even seen a little girl on a bike, let alone a grown woman.”
38歲的賈爾平來自美國科羅拉多州布雷肯里奇市，曾經是皮拉提斯運動教練，她說：「我簡直無法相信。我去過這個國家最開明的一些地區，連小女孩騎單車都沒見過，更別說成年婦女。」

For women in Afghanistan, riding a bicycle is taboo. What is considered appropriate behavior varies from one family and community to the next, but women riding bicycles is “generally considered immoral,” said Heather Barr, an Afghanistan researcher for Human Rights Watch.
對阿富汗婦女而言，騎單車是大忌。何者才是婦女的適當行為，因家庭、社區而異，但是「人權觀察」組織的阿富汗研究人員海瑟‧巴爾說，婦女騎單車「社會上普遍視為不合道德」。

In the hierarchy of cultural offenses committed by women, it ranks between driving a car and so-called moral crimes, which include running away from home or being spotted in the company of a man.
在婦女的文化犯罪層級中，騎單車介於開車和所謂的道德犯罪之間，道德犯罪包括逃家與被人看見有男人相伴。

Ms. Galpin, who claims to be the first woman to have ridden a mountain bike through the Afghan countryside, decided to help the cyclists.
賈爾平自稱是在阿富汗鄉間騎越野單車的第一位女性，她決定助這些單車騎士一臂之力。

In April, she returned to Afghanistan to distribute more than 40 duffel bags worth of cycling gear to the men and women’s national cycling teams. The items include bicycle tools, seats, shoes and about 200 jerseys.
四月時，她重返阿富汗提供40多個行李袋的單車裝備給男、女國家自行車隊。品項包括單車工具、座椅，鞋子和約200件的運動衣。

To document the event, Ms. Galpin took along a crew to make a short film about the women’s team titled “Afghan Cycles.”
為記錄此事，賈爾平還自帶一組人員，為女自行車隊拍攝短片，片名「阿富汗騎自行車」。

Despite having received death threats, many of the female cyclists are eager to speak publicly about the team, Ms. Galpin said.
賈爾平說，儘管接獲死亡威脅，許多女騎士還是渴望公開談論女車隊的事。

“They’re no different than women in Afghanistan who risk their lives to attend school or run for Parliament,” she said.
她說：「她們和那些冒生命危險去上學或競選國會議員的阿富汗女性並無二致。」

Ms. Galpin first went to Afghanistan in 2008. Since then, Mountain2Mountain, a non-profit organization she founded in 2006 to aid women in conflict zones, has built a heroin rehabilitation center for women and computer labs for girls’ schools in Kabul, among other projects.
賈爾平2008年首度前往阿富汗。其後，她2006年創立，協助衝突地區婦女的非營利組織「一山又一山」做了不少事，包括在喀布爾設置了婦女海洛因戒治中心、女子學校電腦實驗室等。

Ms. Galpin’s commitment to women’s rights evolved after she was raped and stabbed at age 17 while walking through a park in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she was studying modern dancer. “For years, I was petrified that I’d be defined as a victim,” she said during a recent visit to New York. “I didn’t realize that victimhood could also be a source of strength.”
賈爾平致力於提高女權，源自於她17歲時遭人強暴與刺傷的經歷。當時她在明尼蘇達州明尼亞波里斯學習現代舞，行經公園時遭遇不幸。她最近一次造訪紐約時說：「多年來，我因為人們可能以受害人的眼光看待我而嚇壞了。我並不知道，受害也可以是力量的來源。」

Afghanistan has 45 licensed female cyclists. Some of these riders participated in the Asian cycling championships, held in New Delhi in March, though four of them failed to finish.
阿富汗有45名有照的女單車手，部分參加了今年三月在新德里舉行的亞洲自由車錦標賽，儘管有四人未抵達終點。

“The fact that they were at the start line is a victory of sorts,” said Dominique Raymond of the International Cycling Union, the world governing body of cycling.
自行車賽的世界管理組織國際自由車總會的雷蒙說：「她們出現在起跑線這個事實本身，就是一種勝利。」

Salma Kakar, 16, a cyclist on the Afghan women’s team, recently announced her intent to wave the flag of Afghanistan at the Olympics.
阿富汗女車隊的選手，16歲的莎瑪‧喀卡最近宣布，她計畫在奧運會上揮舞阿富汗國旗。

The first step is to get some proper equipment. “The bike company Giro donated a bunch of helmets and shoes,” Ms. Galpin said. “But the girls need money to train, to travel to races and to afford coaches who can teach them basic stuff like how to ride in a pack.
第一步是取得一些適當的裝備。賈爾平說：「吉洛自行車公司捐贈了一批頭盔和運動鞋。但是這些女騎士需要金錢讓她們受訓、前往比賽地點，聘請教練教導她們如何在一群人中騎車這類基本功夫。」

“Once they’ve all finished a race,” she added, “they can start trying to win one.”
她說：「等到她們都能騎完全程，就能開始努力奪標。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/17/sports/cycling/shannon-galpin-has-a-mission-putting-afghans-on-bikes.html

2013-06-04聯合報/G5版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS王麗娟譯 原文參見紐時週報十一版右