Afghan girls robotics team design their future in Qatar
1/5
Rebuilding life
The nine members of an all-girl Afghan robotics team evacuated from Kabul to Qatar have built on their star status and captured hearts since fleeing their homeland. Now back in education and working on their entries for a global robotics competition, the girls worry about their immediate future but hope they can one day return to Afghanistan.
2/5
Taliban's anti-female tyranny
The Taliban had banned women from work and education, confining them to homes during their brutal rule of Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001. On Tuesday, the Taliban vowed girls would be allowed to return to school although they have so far been effectively excluded, with a spokesman saying "more time is needed".
3/5
Offered scholarships
The girls were placed in Qatar Foundation member universities including Carnegie Mellon and Texas A&M University depending on their needs with full scholarships granted by Doha. Some of their teammates remain in Afghanistan while others are in Mexico and the UAE. The girls originally hail from Herat city in western Afghanistan.
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4/5
Shot to fame
The girls made headlines in 2017 after being denied visas to take part in a robotics competition in Washington -- before then-president Donald Trump intervened and they were allowed to travel. The same year the girls won a prestigious robotics award.
5/5
Life-saving mission
The robotics team was formed by Afghan tech entrepreneur Roya Mahboob in 2017. Last year, the team took a life-saving mission to build a ventilator from used car parts and help their war-stricken country battle the virus.