The Afghan women's robotics team "Afghan Dreamers" made big headlines in 2017 when they were banned from traveling to the US, before finally winning a silver medal at the FIRST Global Challenge robotics competition in Washington. Now, they are pleading to move out of the country because the future is bleak after the Taliban returns to power.
Afghan Dreamers have made a number of unique discoveries over the past four years. Their innovations include inexpensive hand-operated ventilators for COVID-19 patients. This ventilator utilizes used spare parts for an old Toyota Corolla.
These students are likely to have a long and successful career in the future. But after the fall of Kabul's government to the Taliban, these genius girls are worried that they won't get a chance to work in the robotics world that has made their name.
"Over the past week there has been concern that the Taliban will come into every home and force girls into child marriage and force them to become child brides," human rights lawyer Kimberley Motley told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC). IFL Science.
"We are very, very concerned about what is happening with the Afghan women's robotics team. Smart girls who want to be engineers, they want to be in the AI community and they dare to dream," she added.
Motley went on to say that Afghan Dreamers sincerely appealed to the Canadian government and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau specifically to be allowed to move there. In 2018, they met Trudeau after winning a robotics competition held in the country.
"They want to be educated. They want to be in a safe place. They want to make Afghanistan proud, and they want to make the world proud by continuing their robotics dream, their AI dream. These kids believe that Canada will be a great place to achieve this." the future," Motley explained.
It's sad to hear Afghan Dreamers have to beg to continue their dream. This condition is very different from the speech by Afghan Dreamers team captain Fatemah Qaderyan when speaking at the Oslo Freedom Forum in 2018.
"Everything in a child starts with imagination. After a while, imagination grows and becomes a dream. Once they have that dream, they want to make it come true. However, children who live in conflict zones, are told that their dreams are just dreams, " said Fatemah.
"Leadership must be in the hands of the youth, a generation that sees technology as a weapon against war. Now that we have experienced education at an early stage, we are determined to get as much education as possible to build a better future for the country," he continued.
Now, the team of 20 girls aged 12-18 are asking to be allowed to move to Canada, for safety and to continue their education.
"They are worried about what will happen tomorrow. They want to keep learning. They want to continue to be the future of Afghanistan, but this is a very vulnerable and dangerous situation for them," concluded Motley.