Afghan robotics team tries to leave the country

‌As reported ImmenaThe Afghan robotics team, which is made up entirely of girls and previously made headlines with its inspiring inventions, is now afraid of its uncertain future due to developments in its homeland. Following the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, Herat, the city where the girls lived, came under Taliban control.

The robotic team, also known as the “Afghan Dreamers”, has overcome many obstacles and problems such as war and poverty to pursue its dreams of engineering and artificial intelligence. Now all these dreams may suddenly come to a bitter end.

The 20-member team, which consists of 12- to 18-year-old Afghan girls, has made Afghanistan proud to represent Afghanistan at the World Robotics Championships. Most importantly, these girls are known for making an inexpensive artificial respirator from used car parts last year to help their country fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

It is now said that they are working hard to find a way out of Afghanistan. Kimberly Motley, a New York-based international human rights lawyer, is working to secure their release and has called on Canada to accept the girls as refugees.

“They (Taliban members) are in Herat, they have entered universities and they are taking the girls (home),” Motli said in an interview with a Canadian media outlet. They tell the girls not to go back to university. Women show up at work and are asked to return home. They (the robotics team) see this and are watching the collapse of their city with tears in their eyes. These girls are very scared.

“Unfortunately, what has happened to the little girls this week is that the Taliban are literally going from house to house, taking the girls out and forcing them to marry children,” Motli said of the current dire situation in Afghanistan. We are very concerned that this will happen to the Afghan girls’ robotics team as well. These girls want to be engineers, they want to be active in the artificial intelligence community, and they wish to succeed in it.

The Taliban took over the government of Afghanistan on Sunday (August 15th) as President Ashraf Ghani left. The Taliban have long been known for depriving women and girls of their basic rights, including education, as well as forcing young girls to marry and promote child marriage.

Subsequent reports indicated that the Afghan robotics team had disappeared, but these reports have not yet been confirmed.

As we have seen in the pictures released from Kabul airport, the Afghan people were hung from an American plane to escape the country, and unfortunately at least two people fell from this flying plane.

Afghanistan has already faced more than 12 years of war, which has challenged the education of girls in the country. Now, at a time when inspirational students like “Afghan Dreamers” are making their mark on the world, it’s sad that it’s all over.

Of course, the Taliban announced a general amnesty yesterday and so far they seem to have kept their promise, but given the expulsion of a female journalist from television and the history of the Taliban, the future of all women in Afghanistan is in doubt. It would not be wrong to worry about the Afghan girls’ robotics team.

Source: ISNA

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