Who is Aisholpan Nurgaiv? > The Eagle Huntress

The story of how Aisholpan Nurgaiv filmed is interesting. She followed his father and started hunting when she was only 10 years old in Western Mongolia. It is not easy for a girl or even an adult man to ride an eight-kilogram eagle on his horse.
However, her family did not allow him to do so quickly. Even the local people did not welcome the fact that women hunted and broke ancient traditions. She has been persuading her father to try to catch an eagle and finally allowed to hunt with eagles, trying her best.
Once, while hunting in 2013, Israeli photographer happened to be interested in why only one girl was hunting eagles among so many men. Then photographer Asher Svidensky took her photos and published a series of jaw-dropping photos of the eagle huntress. Inspired by these pictures, British Director Otto Bell shot a documentary “The Eagle Huntress,” in which Aisholpan starred together with her eagle. With the support of her father, she captured and trained her own golden eagle and won the Ulgii eagle festival. She was the only girl to compete in the festival.

Since then, the girl has been hunting eagles. She became the first female eagle in the history of her ancestors. After the abolition of tradition, the girls of Ulgii were able to get the right to go hunting for eagles. Awarded at the Asia Game Changer Awards, it was a recognition of the merits of changing the perception of gender discrimination. Aisholpan received the state honored Medal of the Polar Star from Mongolian President at her age of 16 in 2018. Now she is studying at Nur-Orda International School in Astana.