Afghanistan’s All-Girls Robotics Team is desperate to move out of the country as the Taliban seizes power

Afghanistan’s all-girls robotics team, which has garnered headlines in recent years for its creations, is desperately trying to leave the country after the Taliban gained control of the capital city of Kabul over the weekend, according to a report from Canada’s media.

“They’re worried about what tomorrow brings. They want to continue to be educated. They want to continue to be the future of Afghanistan. But it’s an extremely tenuous and dangerous situation for them,” human rights lawyer Kimberley Motley told media on Sunday.

Motley went on to say that Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been an “amazing supporter” of the girls, meeting with them in 2018. Motley wants Canada to transport the girls out of Afghanistan safely and, presumably, to grant them refugee status, as it has promised 20,000 other vulnerable Afghans.

The 20-member robotics team, which comprises girls aged 12 to 18, was lauded as the future of Afghanistan and a bright example of how women’s rights in the country had progressed since the US invasion. However, the US pullout has cast doubt on Afghanistan’s future, as the Taliban took control of Kabul on Sunday without firing a single shot.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is said to have fled the nation and not fought the Taliban, a group infamous for using women and girls as sex slaves.

Motley said, “Unfortunately, what’s been happening to little girls over this last week is that the Taliban has been literally going from door to door and literally taking girls out and forcing them to become child brides. And we are very, very concerned of that happening with this Afghan girls robotics team—these girls that want to be engineers, they want to be in the AI community and they dare to dream to succeed.”

“And we are literally begging the Canadian government. We’re begging Prime Minister Trudeau, who has been an amazing supporter of the Afghan girl’s robotics team, to please allow them to come to Canada.”

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