Khatol Mohammadjai

Khatool Mohammadzai (; born c. 1966) is an Afghan brigadier general who served in the Afghan National Army. She was first commissioned in the military of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan during the 1980s, trained as one of the few female paratroopers; she has since logged over 600 jumps in her career. She continued to serve in the Afghan military as an instructor until the Taliban took power in 1996. Reinstated to the military created after the United States invasion in 2001, she became the first woman in Afghan history to reach general officer rank.

Career Mohammadzai was born in Kabul, Afghanistan around 1966. She joined the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in 1983 after she graduated from secondary school, and volunteered to be a paratrooper. Succeeding at the strenuous training for the Afghan Commando Forces, including completing a march from Kabul to Jalalabad, across the mountains in two days, she made her first jump in 1984. During the Soviet–Afghan War, she was denied combat positions, so she served as a paratroop instructor training soldiers for paratroop and commando roles. At first, Mohammadzai got back into physical shape and resumed parachute jumping. She trained with American paratroopers, and worked with NATO officers on starting a new paratroop training program for the ANA. In 2004, she competed against 35 male competitors from Afghanistan and other countries in a parachuting contest, and won.