After being denied visas twice, the Afghan girls’ robotics team was allowed travel to the United States for the FIRST Global Challenge, also known as the “Olympics of Robotics”, taking place in Washington this week. The U.S. is not sharing information regarding the denial of visas because of confidentiality rules, but with a last-minute intervention by President Donald Trump, the team made it to Washington early Saturday. Trump asked the National Security Council to find a way to let the six girls compete and they were allowed entry with a rare “parole” status, only used in exceptional circumstances. Afghan Ambassador Hamdullah Mohib expressed his content saying, “They represent our aspirations and resilience despite having been brought up in a perpetual conflict. These girls will be proving to the world and the nation that nothing will prevent us from being an equal and active member of the international community.”
Teams generally had up to four months to build their robots, but the Afghan team had two weeks before it was to be shipped to the United States. Team mentor, Alireza Mehraban, said the girls had one day to test the robot in Afghanistan before mailing it. On the second day of the competition, they were adjusting and practicing in between rounds. 16-year-old Rodaba Noori acknowledged the ill-timed preparation but nonetheless shared pride in representing Afghanistan saying, “We are so interested, because we find a big chance to show the talent and ability of Afghans, show that Afghan women can make robots too…”
“We want to be the young leader of robotic, technology and science in Afghanistan. We want to work with men to improve our country and make it a better place,” Rodaba told CBS News correspondent Chip Reid.
With teams from over 15o countries, the FIRST Global Challenge aims to encourage young people to pursue careers in math, science, and engineering. The competition entails rounds where an alliance of three nations use their robots to place different colored balls in locations. Orange balls represent pollution whereas blue ones represent water; ultimately, the alliance with the most points in a game wins. Mehraban said the Afghan robot was able to score one or two points in the first game and earned additional points by hanging from a bar. The team will participate in three more matches on Tuesday.
14-year-old Fatemah Qaderyu said she hopes to show the world what girls like her are capable of: “Afghanistan is not just a place of war. Afghan girls can build robots and compete in global competitions.”
