When the Afghan girls’ robotics team went from fêted to fearing for their lives, they only had one person to call: an AI expert in Oxfordshire. thetimes.co.uk/article/the-ph…
Fatemah Qaderyan, Kawsar Roshan, Lida Azizi and Saghar, who prefers her surname not to be used, were members of the Afghan girls’ robotics team.
They travelled the world as schoolgirls, winning medals for their robots and tech expertise.
They travelled the world as schoolgirls, winning medals for their robots and tech expertise.
They were famous at home in Afghanistan and fêted abroad, and now they have fled. It has never been easy to be an educated, independent young woman in Afghanistan. Today it could be a death sentence.
It was 2017 when they hit the headlines. They wanted to travel to Washington DC to take part in a competition aimed at encouraging young people to pursue careers in Stem subjects.
Thanks to Trump’s Muslim travel ban, their visa applications were turned down.
Thanks to Trump’s Muslim travel ban, their visa applications were turned down.
In Oxfordshire, Sarah Porter decided to help. Porter founded Inspired Minds, a community united by a desire to make the world of artificial intelligence (AI) more inclusive and diverse.
AI, she points out, is created largely by white men.
AI, she points out, is created largely by white men.
Young women such as the Afghan team were poster girls for exactly what Porter was trying to do. She set about lobbying to get the travel ban overturned, and she succeeded.
The girls’ robot, which sorted balls according to colour, won them a silver medal and global attention. “It was one of the most iconic moments I have ever seen,” Porter says.
“They were ferocious in their ambition for other women like them to be represented in tech.”
“They were ferocious in their ambition for other women like them to be represented in tech.”
What mattered to them wasn’t just doing what they loved, but changing the narrative around Afghanistan. The headlines about their country were always about war and terrorism.
“We wanted to inspire millions of girls who looked up to us,” they say.
“We wanted to inspire millions of girls who looked up to us,” they say.
“We girls proved that we can do everything that boys can, and that robotics and engineering is not only for boys.”
After Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, Porter’s phone pinged with a message from Fatemah.
“You are our only hope,” she wrote. “We don’t want to die without achieving our goals.”
“You are our only hope,” she wrote. “We don’t want to die without achieving our goals.”
Somehow it fell to Porter to organise their evacuation. “How can it be that I was their best hope?” Porter asks. “I have no qualifications, or right, to be in any way responsible for those people’s lives, but somehow I was.”
Six weeks after Fatemah’s first message, she, Saghar, Kawsar and Lida, and their mentor, Maryam, said goodbye to their families.
“Our mothers and sisters were crying, ‘You are leaving us!’” Saghar remembers. “We might not see our families or our mums again.”
“Our mothers and sisters were crying, ‘You are leaving us!’” Saghar remembers. “We might not see our families or our mums again.”
Read more: thetimes.co.uk/article/the-ph…
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