Afghan Air Force pilots Hasina Najibi and Raihana Rahimi met last year when they attended an aviation training in Dubai. The two women, who are both 25, immediately clicked and became close friends. They shared a passion for flying, and both had to fight to earn that right. Najibi, an ethnic Pashtun, would go to work disguised in large sunglasses, worried her relatives and neighbors would discover she was a pilot. Rahimi often faced discrimination in the armed forces for belonging to the Hazara community. They were preparing to return from Dubai when the Taliban captured Kabul. Worried that the Taliban would take revenge on their families if they were discovered, they told their families to burn the uniforms they’d left at home, as well as their pilot IDs and diplomas. Najibi watched on a video call as her mother set her uniform alight. “All my dreams were on fire,” she says, “and I was just watching.” Now, living together in the heat of southern Florida, the women wait tables in a strip mall. In the evenings, they put a rug under the tree near their apartment. They drink green tea and talk about their lives back in Afghanistan—and their biggest dream: to return to the skies. Read more about the Afghan women who are attempting to build new lives abroad at the link in our bio. Photographs by Sabiha Çimen (@sabakhayr)—@magnumphotos for TIME