KABUL: An all-girls robotics team from Afghanistan was denied a week-long travel visa to Washington DC. The inaugural First Global Challenge, to be held in mid-July, will focus on clean water access. While the Afghan team's robot will be there to compete, the six teenaged girls who created it, won't. A report said that the girls travelled 500 miles from their home city of Herat, to the American embassy in Kabul, two separate times to secure their visas, only to be rejected both times without a reason.
They will, instead, watch the competition via Skype. The Digital Citizen Fund, an organisation co-founded by Afghanistan's first female tech CEO Roya Mahboob, had put together the team. Mahboob said the girls were heartbroken to learn they wouldn't be able to see their hard work come to fruition. “The first time (they were rejected) it was very difficult talking with the students. They're young and they were very upset,” she said. The US State Department is yet to explain why the requests were denied, even though it did grant visas to teams from Iraq, Syria and Sudan. Of the 164 countries to enter, around 95 per cent will be attending the competition.
In their mission statement, Team Afghanistan explained why they chose to compete, “We want to make a difference and most breakthroughs in science, technology, and other industries normally start with the dream of a child to do something great. We want to be that child and pursue our dreams to make a difference in people's lives.”
